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Vol. 15 (2023)

Long-Chain Gemini Surfactant-Assisted Blade Coating Enables Large-Area Carbon-Based Perovskite Solar Modules with Record Performance

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-023-01155-w
Yumin Ren
Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Nano‑Micro Material Research, School of Chemical Biology and Biotechnology, Shenzhen Graduate School, Peking University, Shenzhen 518055, People’s Republic of China
Kai Zhang
Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Nano‑Micro Material Research, School of Chemical Biology and Biotechnology, Shenzhen Graduate School, Peking University, Shenzhen 518055, People’s Republic of China
Zedong Lin
Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Nano‑Micro Material Research, School of Chemical Biology and Biotechnology, Shenzhen Graduate School, Peking University, Shenzhen 518055, People’s Republic of China
Xiaozhen Wei
Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Nano‑Micro Material Research, School of Chemical Biology and Biotechnology, Shenzhen Graduate School, Peking University, Shenzhen 518055, People’s Republic of China
Man Xu
Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Nano‑Micro Material Research, School of Chemical Biology and Biotechnology, Shenzhen Graduate School, Peking University, Shenzhen 518055, People’s Republic of China
Xianzhen Huang
Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Nano‑Micro Material Research, School of Chemical Biology and Biotechnology, Shenzhen Graduate School, Peking University, Shenzhen 518055, People’s Republic of China
Haining Chen
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, People’s Republic of China
Shihe Yang
Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Nano‑Micro Material Research, School of Chemical Biology and Biotechnology, Shenzhen Graduate School, Peking University, Shenzhen 518055, People’s Republic of China

Corresponding Author: Shihe Yang

chsyang@pku.edu.cn

Nano-Micro Letters, Vol. 15 (2023), Article Number: 182

Abstract

Carbon-based perovskite solar cells show great potential owing to their low-cost production and superior stability in ambient air. However, scaling up to high-efficiency carbon-based solar modules hinges on reliable deposition of uniform defect-free perovskite films over large areas, which is an unsettled but urgent issue. In this work, a long-chain gemini surfactant is introduced into perovskite precursor ink to enforce self-assembly into a network structure, considerably enhancing the coverage and smoothness of the perovskite films. The long gemini surfactant plays a distinctively synergistic role in perovskite film construction, crystallization kinetics modulation and defect passivation, leading to a certified record power conversion efficiency of 15.46% with Voc of 1.13 V and Jsc of 22.92 mA cm−2 for this type of modules. Importantly, all of the functional layers of the module are printed through a simple and high-speed (300 cm min−1) blade coating strategy in ambient atmosphere. These results mark a significant step toward the commercialization of all-printable carbon-based perovskite solar modules.


Highlights:
1 Trace amounts of long-chain gemini surfactants are essential for blade-coating of high-quality perovskite films, enabling a 17.05% efficient full printed carbon-based module (50 cm2 active area).
2 Only when the surfactant chain is over a critical length will the gemini surfactant be effective for blade-coating of perovskite films.
3 The surfactants increase the capillary number of perovskite precursor solution, reduce the local disturbance and combat inhomogeneous solidification during blade coating, thus allowing high-quality perovskite films to be formed.

Keywords

Long-chain gemini surfactant Blade-coating Capillary number Carbon-based perovskite photovoltaics All-printable module
Ren, Yumin, Kai Zhang, Zedong Lin, Xiaozhen Wei, Man Xu, Xianzhen Huang, Haining Chen, and Shihe Yang. 2023. “Long-Chain Gemini Surfactant-Assisted Blade Coating Enables Large-Area Carbon-Based Perovskite Solar Modules With Record Performance”. Nano-Micro Letters 15 (July):182. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-023-01155-w.
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