Surfactant engineering for perovskite solar cells and submodules

Summary

Printing large-area perovskite thin films is a major challenge for improving the performance and scaling up of perovskite solar modules (PSMs). Surfactants are considered effective chemicals to improve the quality of printed films. Here, cationic surfactant engineering was conducted for PSMs. Fourteen quaternary ammonium cationic surfactants (QACSs) were systematically screened, and both the influence law and underlying mechanism were attained. Double-chain QACSs exhibit superior capability in regulating perovskite crystallization behavior; thus, the modified films show reduced charge-trap density, prolonged carrier lifetime, and suppressed energy disorder, which increase the efficiency of 0.09 cm² perovskite solar cells to 23.33% and that of 1.0 cm² devices to 22.44%. In addition, we proposed the dust-suppression effect of surfactants, leading to 156 × 156 mm² PSMs with an active-area power conversion efficiency of 19.74%. This work highlights the application value of QACSs in PSMs and provides guidance for the molecular design of surfactants.