Synergy of ammonium chloride and moisture on perovskite crystallization for efficient printable mesoscopic solar cells

• Published in: Nature communications 2017-02, Vol.8 (1), p.14555-14555, Article 14555
• Main Authors: Rong, Yaoguang, Hou, Xiaomeng, Hu, Yue, Mei, Anyi, Liu, Linfeng, Wang, Ping, Han, Hongwei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 140/133; 639/301/299/946; 639/4077/909/4101/4096/946; Carbon; Chloride; Crystallization; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humidity; multidisciplinary; Science; Science (multidisciplinary)
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14555

Organometal lead halide perovskites have been widely used as the light harvester for high-performance solar cells. However, typical perovskites of methylammonium lead halides (CH 3 NH 3 PbX 3 , X=Cl, Br, I) are usually sensitive to moisture in ambient air, and thus require an inert atmosphere to process. Here we demonstrate a moisture-induced transformation of perovskite crystals in a triple-layer scaffold of TiO 2 /ZrO 2 /Carbon to fabricate printable mesoscopic solar cells. An additive of ammonium chloride (NH 4 Cl) is employed to assist the crystallization of perovskite, wherein the formation and transition of intermediate CH 3 NH 3 X·NH 4 PbX 3 (H 2 O) 2 (X=I or Cl) enables high-quality perovskite CH 3 NH 3 PbI 3 crystals with preferential growth orientation. Correspondingly, the intrinsic perovskite devices based on CH 3 NH 3 PbI 3 achieve an efficiency of 15.6% and a lifetime of over 130 days in ambient condition with 30% relative humidity. This ambient-processed printable perovskite solar cell provides a promising prospect for mass production, and will promote the development of perovskite-based photovoltaics. The commercialization of solar cells based on hybrid perovskites requires challenges of device stability and scalable production to be addressed. Rong et al . report ambient-processed printable mesoscopic perovskite solar cells with a lifetime of over 130 days in ambient air with 30% relative humidity.