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Green solvent enabled scalable processing of perovskite solar cells with high efficiency

Nature Sustainability volume 6, pages 1465–1473 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have emerged as a promising next-generation photovoltaic technology for the future energy supply owing to their high efficiency, favourable solution processability and low cost. To accelerate their market entry, however, sustainability challenges remain to be cleared, particularly due to the heavy use of volatile and toxic organic solvents such as the mixture of N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), which becomes even more problematic in mass production. Here we report eco-friendly biomass-derived green solvents with γ-valerolactone (GVL) and n-butyl acetate that allow for solution-based fabrication of high-quality FAPbI3 (FA, formamidinium) perovskite. Remarkably, the FAPbI3 perovskite ink remains stable for up to one year as a result of the high-valence [PbIx]2−x complexes and the strong interaction between GVL and FA+, which overcomes the otherwise instability of FA+ cations when DMF and DMSO are used. Equally important, upon further defect passivation engineering, our solar cells deliver a power conversion efficiency as high as 25.09%. Scaling up this green solvent method yields a mini-module with an aperture area of 12.25 cm2 that reaches a certified efficiency up to 20.23%, suggesting that our work has opened a sustainable pathway towards the practical application of this renewable energy technology.

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Fig. 1: Comparison of the performance for DMF:DMSO and GVL-based precursor solutions.
Fig. 2: Characterizations of the chemical properties of the precursor solutions and crystallization processes of DMF:DMSO and GVL films.
Fig. 3: Characterizations of control and target films based on TBMAPbI3 perovskitoid passivation.
Fig. 4: Photovoltaic performance of control and target PSCs.
Fig. 5: Operational stability of PSCs and large-area PSMs.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available in the paper and Supplementary Information. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility for the assistance on GIWAXS measurements. We also thank the Instrumental Analysis Center (School of Environmental Science and Engineering and Shanghai Jiao Tong University) for assistance with material characterization tests. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, grant no. 22025505 (Y.Z.), 22220102002 (Y.Z.), 52203334 (Y.M.), 42171268 (T.W.)), Program of Shanghai Academic/Technology Research Leader (grant no. 20XD1422200 (Y.Z.)), Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (23ZR1432300 (Y.M.)) and the Oceanic Interdisciplinary Program of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SL2022ZD105 (Y.M.)).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Yanfeng Miao, Meng Ren.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Frontiers Science Center for Transformative Molecules, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

    Yanfeng Miao, Meng Ren, Yuetian Chen, Haifei Wang, Haoran Chen, Xiaomin Liu, Tianfu Wang & Yixin Zhao

  2. Shanghai Non-carbon Energy Conversion and Utilization Institute, Shanghai, China

    Yixin Zhao

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Contributions

Y.Z. and T.W. designed and directed the research. Y.M. and M.R. carried out the device fabrication and sample preparation. H.W. assisted with the fabrication of mini-modules. H.C. and X.L. participated in SEM, GIWAXS and TRPL characterizations and data analysis. Y.Z., T.W., Y.M. and Y.C. wrote the paper with inputs from all authors.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Tianfu Wang or Yixin Zhao.

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Nature Sustainability thanks Nam-Gyu Park and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Miao, Y., Ren, M., Chen, Y. et al. Green solvent enabled scalable processing of perovskite solar cells with high efficiency. Nat Sustain 6, 1465–1473 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01196-4

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