Spray Coating of Perovskite Solar Cells Incorporating Sprayed Self-Assembled Monolayers

Elena Cassella^a, Emma Spooner^a, Timothy Thornber^a, Mary O'Kane^a, James Bishop^a, Joel Smith^b, Onkar Game^a, David Lidzey^a

^aDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sheffield, UK, Hounsfield Road, United Kingdom

^bOxford University, Department of Physics, United Kingdom

International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
Proceedings of International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV22)

València, Spain, 2022 May 19th - 25th

Organizers: Pablo Docampo, Eva Unger and Elizabeth Gibson

Poster, Elena Cassella, 209
Publication date: 20th April 2022

Carbazole-based self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) have recently emerged^[1] as very promising hole-transporting materials for perovskite solar cells, owing to their ideal carrier extraction properties, low materials-cost, and versatility. This class of SAMs has been used in an NREL certified world-record 29.15% monolithic perovskite/Si tandem solar cell,^[2] and demonstrated exceptional stability in planar devices, retaining 100% of the initial device efficiency after 1000 hours of illumination.^[3] Up to now however, such SAMs have been mainly deposited using non-scalable techniques, such as spin coating and dip coating, although slot-die coating has also been demonstrated.^[4]

In this work, we develop two new scalable coating methods to deposit a prototypical carbazole-based SAM (MeO-2PACz), namely spray coating and airbrush pen coating. We also show that the use of a controlled gas-jet (a so-called ‘air-knife’) can be used to accelerate the crystallisation of spray-coated perovskite films, replacing the typical antisolvent quenching lab-scale process with a ‘gas quench’ – first demonstrated for spin coating,^[5] but now applied to almost all other scalable-processing techniques. Combining the use of gas-quenched perovskite with spray-deposition of a SAM, we fabricate fully spray-cast/evaporated perovskite PV devices, with this protocol being entirely consistent with high-speed roll-to-roll manufacturing processes. Notably, the power conversion efficiency of our devices exceeds 20% - a figure that currently represents the state-of-the-art for fully spray-coated technologies.

References:

[1] Al-Ashouri, A.; Magomedov, A.; Roß, M.; Jošt, M.; Talaikis, M.; Chistiakova, G.; Bertram, T.; Márquez, J. A.; Köhnen, E.; Kasparavičius, E.; Levcenco, S.; Gil-Escrig, L.; Hages, C. J.; Schlatmann, R.; Rech, B.; Malinauskas, T.; Unold, T.; Kaufmann, C. A.; Korte, L.; Niaura, G.; Getautis, V.; Albrecht, S. Conformal Monolayer Contacts with Lossless Interfaces for Perovskite Single Junction and Monolithic Tandem Solar Cells. Energy Environ. Sci. 2019, 12 (11), 3356–3369

[2] Al-Ashouri, A.; Köhnen, E.; Li, B.; Magomedov, A.; Hempel, H.; Caprioglio, P.; Márquez, J. A.; Morales Vilches, A. B.; Kasparavicius, E.; Smith, J. A.; Phung, N.; Menzel, D.; Grischek, M.; Kegelmann, L.; Skroblin, D.; Gollwitzer, C.; Malinauskas, T.; Jošt, M.; Matič, G.; Rech, B.; Schlatmann, R.; Topič, M.; Korte, L.; Abate, A.; Stannowski, B.; Neher, D.; Stolterfoht, M.; Unold, T.; Getautis, V.; Albrecht, S. Monolithic Perovskite/Silicon Tandem Solar Cell with >29% Efficiency by Enhanced Hole Extraction. Science (80-. ). 2020, 370 (6522), 1300–1309

[3] Roß, M.; Severin, S.; Stutz, M. B.; Wagner, P.; Köbler, H.; Favin‐Lévêque, M.; Al‐Ashouri, A.; Korb, P.; Tockhorn, P.; Abate, A.; Stannowski, B.; Rech, B.; Albrecht, S.; Favin-Lévêque, M.; Al-Ashouri, A.; Korb, P.; Tockhorn, P.; Abate, A.; Stannowski, B.; Rech, B.; Albrecht, S. Co‐Evaporated Formamidinium Lead Iodide Based Perovskites with 1000 h Constant Stability for Fully Textured Monolithic Perovskite/Silicon Tandem Solar Cells. Adv. Energy Mater. 2021, 2101460.

[4] Li, J.; Dagar, J.; Shargaieva, O.; Flatken, M. A.; Köbler, H.; Fenske, M.; Schultz, C.; Stegemann, B.; Just, J.; Többens, D. M.; Abate, A.; Munir, R.; Unger, E. 20.8% Slot‐Die Coated MAPbI 3 Perovskite Solar Cells by Optimal DMSO‐Content and Age of 2‐ME Based Precursor Inks. Adv. Energy Mater. 2021, 11 (10), 2003460.

[5] Huang, F.; Dkhissi, Y.; Huang, W.; Xiao, M.; Benesperi, I.; Rubanov, S.; Zhu, Y.; Lin, X.; Jiang, L.; Zhou, Y.; Gray-Weale, A.; Etheridge, J.; McNeill, C. R.; Caruso, R. A.; Bach, U.; Spiccia, L.; Cheng, Y.-B. Gas-Assisted Preparation of Lead Iodide Perovskite Films Consisting of a Monolayer of Single Crystalline Grains for High Efficiency Planar Solar Cells. Nano Energy 2014, 10, 10–18.

Acknowledgements:

This work was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) grant EP/S009213/1 (The integration of photovoltaic devices with carbon-fiber composites). E.J.C., J.A.S. and E.L.K.S. thank the EPSRC for a PhD studentship from the Centre for Doctoral Training in New and Sustainable PV, (EP/L01551X/1). M.E.O’K. thanks the EPSRC for a PhD studentship from the Centre for Doctoral Training in Polymers and Colloids, EP/ (EP/L016281/1). T.T. thanks the faculty of Science, University of Sheffield for a studentship.

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