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Surfactant-assisted doctor-blading-printed FAPbBr3 films for efficient semitransparent perovskite solar cells

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Abstract

Organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells have generated wide interest due to the rapid development of their photovoltaic conversion efficiencies. However, the majority of the reported devices have been fabricated via spin coating with a device area of < 1 cm2. In this study, we fabricated a wide-bandgap formamidinium lead bromide (FAPbBr3) film using a cost-effective, high-yielding doctor-blade-coating process. The effects of different surfactants, such as 1-α-phosphatidylcholine, polyoxyethylene sorbitan monooleate, sodium lauryl sulfonate, and hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide, were studied during the printing process. Accompanying the optimization of the blading temperature, crystal sizes of over 10 µm and large-area perovskite films of 5 cm × 5 cm were obtained using this method. The printed FAPbBr3 solar cells exhibited a short-circuit current density of 8.22 mA/cm2, an open-circuit voltage of 1.175 V, and an efficiency of 7.29%. Subsequently, we replaced the gold with silver nanowires as the top electrode to prepare a semitransparent perovskite solar cell with an average transmittance (400–800 nm) of 25.42%, achieving a high-power efficiency of 5.11%. This study demonstrates efficient doctor-blading printing for preparing large-area FAPbBr3 films that possess high potential for applications in building integrated photovoltaics.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Plan (No. 2017YFE0131900), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51672202 and 21875178). J.Z. thanks the support from the “Chutian Scholar Program” of Hubei Province, China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, 430070, China

    Hangkai Ying, Yifan Liu, Yuxi Dou, Jibo Zhang, Zhenli Wu, Yi-Bing Cheng & Jie Zhong

  2. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, 430070, China

    Qi Zhang

  3. School of Aerospace, Transport and Manufacturing, Cranfield University, Cranfield, Bedfordshire, MK43 0AL, UK

    Qi Zhang

  4. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, 3800, Australia

    Yi-Bing Cheng

Authors
  1. Hangkai Ying
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  2. Yifan Liu
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  3. Yuxi Dou
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  4. Jibo Zhang
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  5. Zhenli Wu
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  6. Qi Zhang
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  7. Yi-Bing Cheng
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  8. Jie Zhong
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jie Zhong.

Additional information

Hangkai Ying is currently undertaking his Master’s degree in State Key Lab of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, China. His research interests focus on the wide-gap perovskite solar cells and doctor-blade coating.

Yifan Liu is currently undertaking his Master’s degree in State Key Lab of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, China. His research interests focus on developing novel and stable perovskite solar cells.

Yuxi Dou is currently undertaking his Master’s degree in State Key Lab of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, China. His research interests focus on the transparent electrode and semitransparent perovskite solar cells.

Jibo Zhang is currently undertaking his Master’s degree in State Key Lab of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, China. His research interests focus on the superhydrophobic encapsulated films.

Zhengli Wu is currently undertaking his Master’s degree in State Key Lab of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, China. His research interests focus on the doping and interface control of perovskite solar cells.

Qi Zhang received his B.Sc. degree in Electrochemistry, M.Sc. degree in Inorganic Materials and Ph.D. degree in Sol-Gel Chemistry. He joined Cranfield University, UK as a Research Fellow in 1996 following the completion of a Ph.D. degree at Monash University in Australia. He became a Senior Research Fellow in 1998, and then Senior Lecturer in 2007. He has a strong background in ferroelectric thin and thick films and their applications in ferroelectric mempry, pyroelectric and electrocaloric effect; in the synthesis of nanofunctional materials and their applications in ink-jet printing, and surface modifications; and in nanomaterials for energy storage, etc.

Yi-Bing Cheng is a professor in Department of Materials Engineering at Monash University, Australia. He completed his undergraduate (1978) and Master (1983) studies at Wuhan University of Technology, China and received a Ph.D. degree from University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK in 1989. He specializes in inorganic materials and composites. He started working on dye sensitized solar cells in 2001 and is mainly interested in solution processed solar cells.

Jie Zhong received his Ph.D. degree in December 2011 from Central South University, China. He was studied in Department of Engineering, Monash University, Australia as a visiting student and work on sol-gel processed ceramics, supervised by Prof. Yi-Bing Cheng. In 2015, he joined State Key Lab of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, China as associate professor and was awarded as the “Chutian Scholar” of Hubei province in 2016. His current research interests focus on solution processed optoelectronics and functional coatings for energy and environmental applications.

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Ying, H., Liu, Y., Dou, Y. et al. Surfactant-assisted doctor-blading-printed FAPbBr3 films for efficient semitransparent perovskite solar cells. Front. Optoelectron. 13, 272–281 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12200-020-1031-1

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