Nature inspiring processing route toward high throughput production of perovskite photovoltaics. Issue 18 (1st March 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ishihara, Hidetaka; Sarang, Som; Chen, Yen-Chang; Lin, Oliver; Phummirat, Pisrut; Thung, Lai; Hernandez, Jose; Ghosh, Sayantani; Tung, Vincent
• Is Part Of: Journal of materials chemistry. Volume 4:Issue 18(2016)
• Page Start: 6989
• Page End: 6997
• Publication Date: 2016-03-01
• Subjects: Materials -- Research -- Periodicals; Chemistry, Analytic -- Periodicals; Environmental sciences -- Research -- Periodicals; 543.0284
• DOI: 10.1039/c5ta09992g
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2050-7488

Abstract

Abstract : We report our results of developing perovskite thin films with high coverage, improved uniformity and preserved crystalline continuity in a single pass deposition. Abstract : We report our results of developing perovskite thin films with high coverage, improved uniformity and preserved crystalline continuity in a single pass deposition. This approach, inspired by the natural phenomena of tears of wine, works by regulating the hydrodynamics of the material comprising of droplets during spray-pyrolysis. In contrast to conventional spray-pyrolysis where droplets dry independently and form a rough morphology, the use of binary solvent system creates localized surface tension gradients that initiate Marangoni flows, thus directing the incoming droplets to spontaneously undergo coalescing, merging and spreading into a continuous wet films before drying. By systematically exploring the dynamics of spreading and drying, we achieve spray-coated perovskite photovoltaics with power conversion efficiency of 14.2%, a near two-fold improvement than that of the spray-pyrolysis counterpart. Of particular significance is the fact that the single pass deposition technique unveils novel inroads in efficient management of lead consumption during deposition.