Perovskite solar cells based on screen-printed thin films

• Published in: Nature (London) 2022-12, Vol.612 (7939), p.266-271
• Main Authors: Chen, Changshun, Chen, Jianxin, Han, Huchen, Chao, Lingfeng, Hu, Jianfei, Niu, Tingting, Dong, He, Yang, Songwang, Xia, Yingdong, Chen, Yonghua, Huang, Wei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 639/301/299/946; 639/4077/4072/4062; Acetic acid; Blade coating; Calcium Compounds; Coatings; Deposition; Electrodes; Film thickness; Grain size; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humidity; Inkjet printing; Ionic liquids; Maximum power; Methods; multidisciplinary; Oxides; Perovskites; Photovoltaic cells; Photovoltaics; Printing; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Screen printing; Slot dies; Solar cells; Solvents; Spin coating; Substrates; Thin films; Viscosity
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05346-0

One potential advantage of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) is the ability to solution process the precursors and deposit films from solution 1 , 2 . At present, spin coating, blade coating, spray coating, inkjet printing and slot-die printing have been investigated to deposit hybrid perovskite thin films 3 – 6 . Here we expand the range of deposition methods to include screen-printing, enabled by a stable and viscosity-adjustable (40–44,000 cP) perovskite ink made from a methylammonium acetate ionic liquid solvent. We demonstrate control over perovskite thin-film thickness (from about 120 nm to about 1,200 nm), area (from 0.5 × 0.5 cm 2 to 5 × 5 cm 2 ) and patterning on different substrates. Printing rates in excess of 20 cm s −1 and close to 100% ink use were achieved. Using this deposition method in ambient air and regardless of humidity, we obtained the best efficiencies of 20.52% (0.05 cm 2 ) and 18.12% (1 cm 2 ) compared with 20.13% and 12.52%, respectively, for the spin-coated thin films in normal devices with thermally evaporated metal electrodes. Most notably, fully screen-printing devices with a single machine in ambient air have been successfully explored. The corresponding photovoltaic cells exhibit high efficiencies of 14.98%, 13.53% and 11.80% on 0.05-cm 2 , 1.00-cm 2 and 16.37-cm 2 (small-module) areas, respectively, along with 96.75% of the initial efficiency retained over 300 h of operation at maximum power point. Using a stable and viscosity-tunable perovskite ink, a hybrid perovskite thin-film photovoltaic device can be deposited by the screen-printing method, which exhibits higher efficiency compared with previously investigated techniques.