All Electrospray Printing of Carbon-Based Cost-Effective Perovskite Solar Cells

With the power conversion efficiencies of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) exceeding 25%, the PSCs are a step closer to initial industrialization. Prior to transferring from laboratory fabrication to industrial manufacturing, issues such as scalability, material cost, and production line compatibility that significantly impact the manufacturing remain to be addressed. Here, breakthroughs on all these fronts are reported. Carbon-based PSCs with architecture fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO)/electron transport layer/perovskite/carbon, that eliminate the need for the hole transport layer and noble metal electrode, provide ultralow-cost configuration. This PSC architecture is manufactured using a scalable and industrially compatible electrospray (ES) technique, which enables continuous printing of all the cell layers. The ES deposited electron transport layer and perovskite layer exhibit properties comparable to that of the laboratory-scale spin coating method. The ES deposited carbon electrode layer exhibits superior conductivity and interfacial microstructure in comparison to films synthesized using the conventional doctor blading technique. As a result, the fully ES printed carbon-based PSCs show a record 14.41% power conversion efficiency, rivaling the state-of-the-art hole transporter-free PSCs. These results will immediately have an impact on the scalable production of PSCs.

Automated summary

The breakthrough of carbon-based PSCs with electrospray (ES) technique enables a low-cost configuration without the need for noble metal electrodes or hole transport layers. This scalable and industrially compatible method allows for continuous printing of all cell layers, leading to record power conversion efficiency of 14.41%.