Seed-Assisted Growth for Scalable and Efficient Perovskite Solar Modules

Abstract

Perovskite solar modules (PSMs) have shown remarkable photovoltaic potentials, but they still suffer from large power conversion efficiency (PCE) loss on scale-up and instability due to inferior uniformity and crystallization over large areas. Herein, the scalable production of efficient and stable PSMs using a suite of all-scalable fabrication methods featuring a two-step blade/dip-coating approach to deposit the perovskite absorber layer is demonstrated. Rubidium chloride is introduced to embed (PbI2)2RbCl complex seeds in the first-deposited PbI2 precursor, which assists in uniform crystallization of the perovskite layer with high crystallinity and reduced defect density over large areas. Following the optimization of RbCl additives, a champion PSM with 17.9% PCE on a 7.6 × 7.6 cm2 substrate with a 37 cm2 aperture area is achieved. Moreover, the RbCl-incorporated PSMs demonstrate excellent reproducibility and stability under continuous 1 sun illumination. This work shows that the two-step blade/dip coating is a promising method for producing high-efficiency and stable PSMs on an industrially relevant scale.