Scalable large area perovskite solar cell modules fabricated with high humidity tolerance by vacuum deposition

Vacuum deposition is promising for large-area, high-throughput production of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However, the strict low humidity control increases the costs for manufacturing facilities and hinders the large-scale production of PSCs. In this work, a sequential deposition method was used to prepare the perovskite intermediate phase, and the impact of ambient humidity was studied during the annealing process. It is shown that proper humidity has a positive effect on the perovskite layer, which is conducive to accelerate the reaction between organic salts and PbI2 and improve the surface morphology of the film. The perovskite annealing under 55% relative humidity exhibits fewer defects and faster carrier transport kinetics. The resulting PSCs, with all layers fabricated adopting vapor deposition, yield a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 15.01% for the large area modules of 100 cm2 (active area 64.8 cm2). More impressively, the PCE of the unpackaged cell modules remained above 80% after being placed in ambient air for 1200 h. The results open a promising way for scalable fabrication of humidity-tolerant large-area perovskite solar cell modules and shed light on the industrial production of PSCs.