Scalable Precursor Solution for Stable Perovskite Solar Cells: From Solutions to High-quality Films

Manuel Vasquez-Montoya^a, Daniel Ramirez^a, Juan F Montoya^a, Franklin Jaramillo^a

^aCentro de Investigación, Innovación y Desarrollo de Materiales – CIDEMAT, Universidad de Antioquia UdeA, Calle 70, 52-21, Medellín, Colombia

International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
Proceedings of International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV19)

Roma, Italy, 2020 May 12th - 14th

Organizers: Prashant Kamat, Filippo De Angelis and Aldo Di Carlo

Poster, Manuel Vasquez-Montoya, 245
Publication date: 6th February 2020

Hybrid halide perovskites processed from methylamine and acetonitrile solvents have attracted great attention due to their capacity to achieve uniform and crystalline films leading to highly efficient devices in a single-step deposition method [1]. Its inherent fast film crystallization facilitates its application to continuous printing methods compatible with roll-to-roll processing [2]. Moreover, this precursor have also demonstrated a remarkable stability, achieving over 2000 h of operation under real outdoor exposure conditions in 17cm² modules [3]. Despite this excellent properties, this method uses MAPbI₃perovskite, which suffers a premature degradation associated to heat and moisture, hindering their long-term stability.

On the look for other compositions, it has been proved that methylamine gas forms a liquid state phase in other perovskite structures like FAPbI₃[4], CsPbI₃[5]_,BA₂PbI₃[6]_,among others. A swelling in the structure is observed. Such fact is attributed to the slicing of 3D structure on low dimensional layers[7]. However, it remains still unclear what happens on mixed compositions. In addition, no attention has been paid in the acetonitrile role in the solution, and their implementation has been limited to empirically approach. This lack of understanding limits its application to more complex compositions potentially leading to higher device stability and efficiency.

In this work, we explore two techniques to methylamine gas incorporation on mixed cation compositions. i) MA gas “healing” proposed by Zhao [8] and ii) Powder derived method that use MA/ACN as solvent proposed by Wu [7]. Using XRD and UV-vis measurements we found that MA gas exposure induce non-active intermediary phases on mixed cation perovskites films. On the other hand, the powder derived method allows the formation of active alpha-phase, indicating that the solvent plays a fundamental role on the phase stabilization. In conclusion, we obtain an antisolvent-free route to fabricate active alpha-phase on mixed cation compositions, providing a roadmap to achieve scalable precursors for high stable and efficient perovskite solar cells.

References:

[1] Noel, N. K.; Habisreutinger, S. N.; Wenger, B.; Klug, M. T.; Hörantner, M. T.; Johnston, M. B.; Nicholas, R. J.; Moore, D. T.; Snaith, H. J. A Low Viscosity, Low Boiling Point, Clean Solvent System for the Rapid Crystallisation of Highly Specular Perovskite Films. Energy Environ. Sci. 2017, 10 (1), 145–152.

[2] Whitaker, J. B.; Wheeler, L. M.; Ryter, J.; Dou, B.; Garner, S. M.; Moore, D. T.; Breslin, N. J.; Tassone, C. J.; Zhu, K.; Barnes, F. S.; et al. Roll-to-Roll Printing of Perovskite Solar Cells. ACS Energy Lett. 2018, 3 (10), 2558–2565.

[3] Ramirez, D.; Velilla, E.; Montoya, J. F.; Jaramillo, F. Mitigating Scalability Issues of Perovskite Photovoltaic Technology through a P-i-n Meso-Superstructured Solar Cell Architecture. Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells 2019, 195, 191–197.

[4] Zhao, T.; Williams, S. T.; Chueh, C. C.; Dequilettes, D. W.; Liang, P. W.; Ginger, D. S.; Jen, A. K. Y. Design Rules for the Broad Application of Fast (<1 s) Methylamine Vapor Based, Hybrid Perovskite Post Deposition Treatments. RSC Adv. 2016, 6 (33), 27475–27484.

[5] Shao, Z.; Wang, Z.; Li, Z.; Fan, Y.; Meng, H.; Liu, R.; Wang, Y.; Hagfeldt, A.; Cui, G.; Pang, S. A Scalable Methylamine Gas Healing Strategy for High Efficiency Inorganic Perovskite Solar Cells. Angew. Chemie Int. Ed. 2019

[6] Visoly-Fisher, I.; Chen, X.-Q.; Wu, S.-C.; Xiao, W.-J.; Yao, X.; Li, Y.; Xu, G.; Lin, J.; Li, Y.; Li, W.-S.; et al. Mutual Composition Transformations Among 2D/3D Organolead Halide Perovskites and Mechanisms Behind. Sol. RRL 2018, 2 (10), 1800125.

[7] Wu, C.; Li, H.; Yan, Y.; Chi, B.; Pu, J.; Li, J.; Sanghadasa, M.; Priya, S. Cost-Effective Sustainable-Engineering of CH3NH3PbI3 Perovskite Solar Cells through Slicing and Restacking of 2D Layers. Nano Energy 2017, 36, 295–302.

[8] [8] P. Padture, and Guanglei Cui., Methylamine-Gas-Induced Defect-Healing Behavior of CH 3 NH 3 PbI 3 Thin Films for Perovskite Solar Cells ,” Angew. Chemie Int. Ed., vol. 54, no. 33, pp. 9705–9709, 2015.

Acknowledgements:

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the committee for the development of research (CODI) of the Universidad de Antioquia, in the framework of the project 2017-16000.

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