Meniscus Guide Slot-Die Coating For Roll-to-Roll Perovskite Solar Cells

Abstract

Abstract:Roll-to-roll slot-die coating with a meniscus guide is used to deposit several layers in a P-I-N perovskite solar cell stack, including the perovskite layer. The use of various length meniscus guides as part of the slot-die head allows controlled coating of these layers at a common coating speed. The length of meniscus guide used is optimised and related to the rheology of the coated ink and appropriate choice of meniscus guide length provides a way to avoid flooding of the coated area and improve coating definition. Initial coating trial results suggest the low-flow limit of slot-die coating is still applicable when using a meniscus guide, which is an important and previously unreported observation, application of this theory to meniscus guide coating provides a useful tool for rapidly determining the appropriate coating conditions that can be used as part of a manufacturing process. This is further explored through the deposition of perovskite solar cells by roll-to-roll slot-die coating. The perovskite layer is deposited using a sequential slot-die deposition process using a low toxicity dimethyl sulfoxide ink for the lead iodide layer, it is found that increasing the drying oven temperature and air flow rate can be used to improve the uniformity of the layer but this can also result in deformation of the plastic substrate. Functioning perovskite solar cells are demonstrated using this technique, but a large variation is found between device performances which is attributed to the poor uniformity of the perovskite layer and damage caused to the substrate by excessive heating.

Roll-to-roll slot-die coated P–I–N perovskite solar cells using acetonitrile based single step perovskite solvent system

“…The BCP ink falls just within the unstable region and is very close to the boundary and for the coatings performed was found to result in continuous film formation. Although the low-flow limit seems to apply for slot-die coating with a meniscus guide it is still poorly understood 26 . The meniscus guide length used for each ink is given in Figure 2b.…”

“…Of the reports of perovskite solar cells made in part using R2R processing gravure 20,24 and slot-die coating are the most commonly used deposition methods. R2R slot-die coating of the the device stack layers up to the perovskite layer has been reported for both the P-I-N 25,26 and N-I-P 27,28 device stack and has resulted in good device performance. Reports of R2R processing for more layers in the device stack are even fewer, both the N-I-P 29,30 and P-I-N 31 device stacks have been deposited using R2R slot-die processing up to the top electrode, but in both cases evaporated top contacts have been deposited off line.…”

Scalable Deposition Methods for Large‐area Production of Perovskite Thin Films

“…Slot-die 1 ITO/PEDOT:PSS/MaPbI-Cl/PCBM/Ag 0.12 2.9% [75] Slot-die with vacuum quench 1 FTO/ZnO/MaPbI 3 /Carbon 1-17.6 15.1% [76] Slot-die with air quench 1 ITO/ZnO/MaPbI 3 /Bifluo/MoO 3 /Ag 0.0672 12.73% [77] Slot-die with air quench 1 ITO/PEDOT:PSS/MaPbI-Cl/C60/PCBM/BCP/Ag 0.01-10 13.30% [78] Slot-die 1 ITO/TiO 2 /MaPbI-Cl/Spiro/Au 0.09-168 14.1%* [79] Slot-die and dipping 2 ITO/ZnO/MaPbI 3 /Bifluo/Ag 0.1 14.75% [72] Slot-die 1 ITO/SnO 2 /MaPbI-Cl/Spori/Au 0.06 15.2%* [80] Slot-die 2 ITO/ZnO/MAPbI 3 /P 3 HT/Au 1 3.6% [81] Slot-die 2 ITO/PEDOT:PSS/MAPbI 3 /PCBM/BCP/Ag 0.15 9.38% [82] Slot-die 1 ITO/SnO 2 /CsFAPbIBr/Spiro/Au 0.04 13.9%* [83] Samples with * are stabilized power conversion efficiency. All others are maximum.…”

Sustainable solvent selection for the manufacture of methylammonium lead triiodide (MAPbI3) perovskite solar cells

“…Each technique requires specific consideration of the solvent parameters along with the physical and rheological properties that may differ from those of solvent systems developed for spin-coating. 57,58 Evidence suggests the reaction mechanism between Pb 2+ ions and a dipolar aprotic solvent results in effective dissolution of trihalide perovskite layers. 36 Due to the required dissolution of lead iodide, alternative dipolar aprotic solvents were shortlisted preferentially as Lewis basic ligands for solvation.…”