| Work Detail |
A team at Jeonbuk National University in South Korea used slot coating to produce uniform, high-quality perovskite films, which they used in a perovskite solar cell that achieved 19.17% efficiency and in lab-sized modules that achieved 17.42% efficiency.
A team at Jeonbuk National University in South Korea investigated the use of slotted die coating (SDC) to fabricate uniform, high-quality perovskite films as a precursor to the fabrication of large-area perovskite devices.
The scientists found that SDC increased the roughness of the hole transport layer (HTL) interface, which improved surface wettability and enabled a high-quality perovskite film free of bubbles and holes. A perovskite solar cell based on the film achieved an efficiency of 19.17% with “excellent” stability results, and a lab-sized module achieved an efficiency of 17.42%.
The researchers note that self-assembled monolayers (SAMs), such as Me-4PACz, are excellent materials for the HTL of perovskite solar cells, but they have poor wettability, which has held back progress until now. To find a solution, the team looked at a combination of nickel oxide (NiOx) and Me-4PACz. They found that using SDC improved the roughness of the HTL interface, resulting in improved wettability.
They explained that the SDC-based NiOx/Me-4PACz hole transport layer suppressed energy losses at the HTL/perovskite interface.
“The application of a facile SDC process to coat the NiOx/Me-4PACz HTL enabled the formation of a uniform and high-quality perovskite layer without pinholes, and furthermore, the SDC-based NiOx/Me-4PACz HTL suppressed the energy losses at the HTL/perovskite interface,” the researchers explained. “Furthermore, charge carrier dynamics analysis demonstrated that the SDC-based NiO/SDCMe-4PACz HTL enhanced hole extraction and transport at the perovskite layer interface.”
They also highlighted that the 19.17% efficiency achieved by the device is superior compared to the SDC NiO devices, which had 15.87%, and stated that the unencapsulated devices showed “excellent stability,” maintaining more than 85% of their initial efficiency for over 2,000 hours in a nitrogen atmosphere.
“Our findings suggest that the SDC process not only effectively overcomes the limitations associated with Me-4PACz but also provides a promising approach for sustained mass production of PSCs, which could lead to the fabrication of highly efficient perovskite solar modules and pave the way for their future commercialization,” the team concluded.
The research is described in “ Influence of interfacial roughness on slot-die coatings for scaling -up high-performance perovskite solar cells,” published by Communications Materials . |
