Influence of precursor concentration on printable mesoscopic perovskite solar cells

Abstract

Over the last decade, the power conversion efficiency of hybrid organic–inorganic perovskite solar cells (PSCs) has increased dramatically from 3.8% to 25.2%. This rapid progress has been possible due to the accurate control of the morphology and crystallinity of solution-processed perovskites, which are significantly affected by the concentration of the precursor used. This study explores the influence of precursor concentrations on the performance of printable hole-conductor-free mesoscopic PSCs via a simple one-step drop-coating method. The results reveal that lower concentrations lead to larger grains with inferior pore filling, while higher concentrations result in smaller grains with improved pore filling. Among concentrations ranging from 0.24–1.20 M, devices based on a moderate strength of 0.70 M were confirmed to exhibit the best efficiency at 16.32%.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

printable perovskite solar cell (PSC) / precursor concentration / crystallization / morphology

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 91733301, 51902117, and 21702069), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, the Science and Technology Department of Hubei Province (No. 2017AAA190), the 111 Project (No. B07038), and the Program for Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) Academic Frontier Youth Team (No. 2016QYTD06). We thank the Analytical and Testing Center of HUST for performing various characterization and measurements.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest to declare.

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2020 Higher Education Press