Blade-coated inverted perovskite solar cells in an ambient environment

To make the jump from laboratories to commercial production for perovskite solar cells, it is necessary to develop devices in an ambient environment using materials and methods that can be scalable. Here, blade coating followed by vacuum quenching is used to manufacture the FACs-based perovskite solar cells with the additive of MACl under an ambient environment (30%–57% RH), where FA is formamidinium and MA is methylammonium. The vacuum allows quick removal of solvent to initiate the nucleation process and create the intermediate phase. To control the nucleation and crystallization, the additive MACl is utilized to manipulate the intermediate phase. Besides perovskites, another key component is the hole transport material. Although nickel oxide exhibits good photostability and can be scalable for the inverted device architecture, the main drawback is low cell efficiency. This work solves it by tuning the cation ratio of Pb2+ to A+ and light soaking, achieving a champion efficiency of 19.5%. The encapsulated solar cells exhibit long-term photostability, maintaining 96% of their original efficiency and 91.5% of their maximum efficiency over 648 h under one sun at 45°C and 50%–60% relative humidity. This work demonstrates an economical and highly scalable process, promising for commercial-scale manufacturing.