Perovskite solar cell technology scaling-up: Eco-efficient and industrially compatible sub-module manufacturing by fully ambient air slot-die/blade meniscus coating

The efficiency gap between perovskite (PVSK) solar sub-modules (size >= 200 cm2) and lab scale cells (size <1 cm2) is up to 36%. Moreover, the few attempts present in the literature used lab-scale techniques in a glove-box environment, reducing its compatibility for further product industrialization. Here, we report a PVSK sub-module (total area 320 cm2, aperture area 201 cm2, 93% geometrical fill factor [GFF]) fabricated in ambient air by hybrid meniscus coating techniques assisted by air and green antisolvent quenching method. To suppress nonradiative recombination losses, improve carrier extraction and control the PVSK growth on such a large surface, we adopted phenethylammonium iodide (PEAI) passivation and PVSK solvent addiction strategies. The high homogeneous and reproducible layers guarantee an efficiency of 16.13% (7% losses with respect to the small area cell and zero losses with respect to the mini-modules) and a stability of more than 3000 h according to International Summit on Organic PV Stability, dark storage/shelf life in ambient (ISOS-D-1). The sustainability of used methods and materials is demonstrated by the life cycle assessment. The scale-up operation allows for strong impact mitigation in all the environmental categories and more efficient consumption of the resources. Finally, the economic assessment shows a strong cost reduction scaling from mini- to sub-module (about 40%). We show a perovskite (PVSK) sub-module (201 cm2 aperture area) with an efficiency of 16.13% by a blade/slot-die meniscus coating process out of the glovebox. PVSK passivation and acetonitrile solvent addiction were introduced to suppress nonradiative recombination losses and control nuclei formation, respectively. Stability and life cycle assessment were reported.image