Proceedings of Materials for Sustainable Development Conference (MAT-SUS) (NFM22)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.nfm.2022.166
Publication date: 11th July 2022
Perovskite solar cells have emerged as a promising and highly efficient solar technology. Despite efficiencies continuing to climb, reaching a new record of 25.7%1, the prospect of industrial manufacture is in part hampered by concerns regarding the safety and sustainability of the solvents used in lab scale manufacture. Here, we aim to present a methodology for green solvent selection informed by EHS considerations from the CHEM-21 solvent guide for succesful methylammonium lead triiodide (MAPbI3) precursor dissolution2. Through the use of this methodology we present a N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF)-free alternative solvent system for deposition of MAPbI3 precursors (MAI and PbI2) consisting of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), dimethylpropyleneurea (DMPU), 2-methyltetrahydrofuran (2-MeTHF) and ethanol (EtOH). Perovskite films cast from the three candidate solutions show improved crystallinity, higher fluorescence emission, and improved crystal size uniformity than those cast from DMF/DMSO and similar photovoltaic performance (16.2% for DMF/DMSO, 16.1% for candidate A solvent system2). We will cover the key solvent parameters which determine effective MAPbI3 precursor dissolution; provide a set of criteria for appropriate alternative solvent selection; and demonstrate the application of green chemistry principles to solvent selection for perovskite photovoltaic manufacturing. Due to significant advancement in the perovskite research sphere, more thermally stable and efficient perovskite compositions have risen to prominence. This includes the now ubiquitous ‘triple cation’ perovskite (Cs0.05(MA0.17FA0.83)0.95Pb(I0.83Br0.17)3)3, providing increased impetus to study solvent interactions in these more complex colloidal dispersions. We will discuss recent progress towards ‘green’ solvent engineering strategies specifically tailored towards these compositions, further highlighting key parameters requiring control to potentially improve the optoelectronic properties of this promising material.
1 Best Research-Cell Efficiency Chart | Photovoltaic Research | NREL, https://www.nrel.gov/pv/cell-efficiency.html, (accessed 7 April 2020).
2 A. J. Doolin, R. G. Charles, C. S. P. De Castro, R. G. Rodriguez, E. V. Péan, R. Patidar, T. Dunlop, C. Charbonneau, T. Watson and M. L. Davies, Green Chem., 2021, 23, 2471–2486.
3 M. Saliba, J.-P. Correa-Baena, C. M. Wolff, M. Stolterfoht, N. Phung, S. Albrecht, D. Neher and A. Abate, Chem. Mater., 2018, 30, 4193–4201.
We are grateful for the financial support of the EPSRC (EP/R016666/1 and EP/S001336/1) and both the EPSRC and Innovate UK for the SPECIFIC Innovation and Knowledge Centre and the European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh Government for support to the Sêr Solar program. MLD and TW are grateful for funding through the EPSRC GCRF SUNRISE project (EP/P032591/1). This project has received funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska—Curie grant agreement No 764787. The authors would like to acknowledge the assistance provided by Swansea University College of Engineering AIM Facility, which was funded in part by the EPSRC (EP/M028267/1).
nanoGe is a prestigious brand of successful science conferences that are developed along the year in different areas of the world since 2009. Our worldwide conferences cover cutting-edge materials topics like perovskite solar cells, photovoltaics, optoelectronics, solar fuel conversion, surface science, catalysis and two-dimensional materials, among many others.
Previously nanoGe Spring Meeting (NSM) and nanoGe Fall Meeting (NFM), MATSUS is a multiple symposia conference focused on a broad set of topics of advanced materials preparation, their fundamental properties, and their applications, in fields such as renewable energy, photovoltaics, lighting, semiconductor quantum dots, 2-D materials synthesis, charge carriers dynamics, microscopy and spectroscopy semiconductors fundamentals, etc.
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The International Conference on Perovskite Thin Film Photovoltaics Perovskite Photonics and Optoelectronics (NIPHO) is the best place to hear the latest developments in perovskite solar cells as well as on recent advances in the fields of perovskite light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.