Volatile solution: the way toward scalable fabrication of perovskite solar cells?

Abstract

In the past decade, perovskite photovoltaics have achieved impressive progress in both efficiency and stability, bringing new insights and excitement in industrial sectors. Transitioning this technology from the laboratory to the industrial level first needs to overcome the crucial barrier of scalable fabrication. Although various synthetic routes have been developed for obtaining high-quality perovskite layers, there remains a gap between small-scale fabrication and industrial-level manufacturing, as the incumbent processing usually requires complex and energy-consuming treatments to remove the non-volatile solvents from those conventional perovskite inks. In this perspective, we conceptualize the volatile solution as an alternative ink system serving as a roadmap toward reliable manufacturing in the future. We discuss, starting from crystallization thermodynamics to insights into the chemistry ink system, its compatibility with various deposition techniques, and the analytic feasibility of scalable/stream-lined manufacturing using this new ink system. With this comprehensive minireview on the ongoing research and a discussion of its hypothetical potential/challenge, we hope to bring new inspiration and to catalyze the transition.

Up-Scalable Fabrication of SnO2 with Multifunctional Interface for High Performance Perovskite Solar Modules

“…However, the stability still lags behind because of poor interface and fragile perovskite materials [ 20 ]. Therefore, high efficiency and long-term stability of PSMs not only need a high-quality perovskite active layer, but also require the preparation of ETLs and interface modification [ 20 , 30 , 31 ]. Better uniformity across the large area, simple fabrication process and low-cost/temperature of ETLs are imperative for the upscalable fabrication of PSMs [ 32 ].…”

Highly Stable Thin Films Based on Novel Hybrid 1D (PRSH)PbX3 Pseudo-Perovskites

“…Secondly, larger islands or microcrystals form on top of the film surface. These results can be explained by comparing the Lamer diagrams for more (DMF) and less (DMSO) volatile solvents, showing a preferred nucleation of new sites in the former case and a preferred enlargement of already nucleated sites for the latter [ 39 , 40 ]. Moreover, the addition of DMSO in DMF is known to alter the perovskite crystallization process retarding the reaction of the organic cations with PbI 2 due to the strong complexing force between PbI 2 and DMSO which induces the formation of PbI 2 —DMSO complexes [ 41 , 42 ].…”

Remanufacturing Perovskite Solar Cells and Modules – a Holistic Case Study

“…Among the commonly used solvents such as DMF, DMSO, NMP and GBL, MA 0 /EtOH has the lowest boiling point, allowing for its rapid evaporation from the cell stack, after perovskite has been removed. 28 Further annealing at 400°C allows to remove perovskite and carbon remnants from the stack, leaving m-TiO2 and ZrO2 intact. Cross-sectional SEM images in Fig.…”