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Chlorobenzene solvent annealing of perovskite thin films for improving efficiency and reproducibility of perovskite solar cells

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Abstract

In recent years, metal halide perovskite solar cells have developed rapidly, with certified power conversion efficiency of over 25% for single-junction solar cells. However, these devices still face challenges such as low efficiency and poor reproducibility, where the quality of the absorbing layer is an essential factor affecting the performance of perovskite solar cells. The triple-cation perovskite thin films prepared based on the two-step method have residuals of lead iodide and a large number of grain boundaries and other defects, leading to the charge carrier recombination and thus to degrade the cell photovoltaic performance. Solvent annealing is a method to improve the performance of perovskite solar cells and has been proven to improve the efficiency and reproducibility. Herein, this work introduced chlorobenzene solvent annealing during the preparation of the organic layer of the perovskite thin film. The results show that the treated perovskite film have increased the grain size of the perovskite thin film and meanwhile reduced its defects. At the same time, this treatment significantly reduced the residual lead iodide in the perovskite film, resulting in an improvement in the reproducibility of the devices. Moreover, this treatment also contributed to enhance the specific gravity of radiative recombination and to prolong the carrier lifetime in the film, thus improving the efficiency of the solar cell. As a result, the cell efficiency and reproducibility were improved, where the average and the highest efficiencies were increased by 16.38% and 5.87%, respectively, compared to the perovskite solar cells prepared without the chlorobenzene solvent annealing treatment. Therefore, this work provides a promising idea for improving the quality of perovskite films and further optimizing the efficiency of perovskite solar cells.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr. Yingming Zhu from the Institute of New Energy and Low-Carbon Technology, Sichuan University, for SEM images capturing and analysis. This work is financially supported by National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2019YFE0120000), Science and Technology Program of Sichuan Province (Nos. 2020YFH0079 and 2021YFG0102), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. YJ201955) and the Engineering Featured Team Fund of Sichuan University (No. 2020SCUNG102).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610065, China

    Yidie Yuan, Aoxi He, Lili Wu, Dewei Zhao & Jingquan Zhang

  2. Institute of New Energy and Low-Carbon Technology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610065, China

    Xia Hao, Lili Wu, Dewei Zhao & Jingquan Zhang

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  1. Yidie Yuan
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  2. Aoxi He
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  3. Xia Hao
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. YY and AH performed material preparation, data collection and analysis. YY wrote the first draft of the manuscript. JZ directed the project. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jingquan Zhang.

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Yuan, Y., He, A., Hao, X. et al. Chlorobenzene solvent annealing of perovskite thin films for improving efficiency and reproducibility of perovskite solar cells. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 33, 24208–24219 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-022-09122-8

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