Issue 6, 2023

Efficient thin-film perovskite solar cells from a two-step sintering of nanocrystals

Abstract

Creating semiconductor thin films from sintering of colloidal nanocrystals (NCs) represents a very important technology for high throughput and low cost thin-film photovoltaics. Here we report the creation of all-inorganic cesium lead bromide (CsPbBr3) polycrystalline films with grain size exceeding 1 μm from the bottom up by sintering of CsPbBr3 NCs terminated with short and low-boiling-point alky ligands that are ideal for use in sintered photovoltaics. The grain growth behavior during the sintering process was carefully investigated and correlated to the solar cell performance. To achieve precise control over the microstructural development we propose a facile two-step sintering process involving the grain growth via coarsening at a relative low temperature followed by densification at a high temperature. Compared with the one-step sintering, the two-step process yields a more uniform CsPbBr3 bulk film with larger grain size, higher density and lower trap density. Consequently, the photovoltaic device based on the two-step sintering process demonstrates a significant enhancement of efficiency with reduced hysteresis that approaches the best reported CsPbBr3 solar cells using a similar configuration. Our study specifies a rarely addressed perspective concerning the sintering mechanism of perovskite NCs and should contribute to the development of high-performance bulk perovskite devices based on the building blocks of perovskite NCs.

Graphical abstract: Efficient thin-film perovskite solar cells from a two-step sintering of nanocrystals

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
02 12 2022
Accepted
18 1 2023
First published
18 1 2023

Nanoscale, 2023,15, 2924-2931

Efficient thin-film perovskite solar cells from a two-step sintering of nanocrystals

Y. Peng, J. Huang, L. Zhou, Y. Mu, S. Han, S. Zhou and P. Gao, Nanoscale, 2023, 15, 2924 DOI: 10.1039/D2NR06745E

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements