Blade‐Coating with Engineered Evaporation Kinetics Enables Scalable Perovskite Photovoltaics with Minimal Efficiency Loss
The blade-coating method has become an important technology that can be expanded to manufacture perovskite solar photovoltaics. However, the inherent conflict between rapid solvent removal and crystallization control in ambient blade-coating process fundamentally constrains the production throughput and film quality of perovskite solar modules. Here, a ternary solvent system (DMF/NMP/2-methoxyethanol) with hierarchical volatility gradients is developed, synergistically integrated with vacuum-flash evaporation to decouple nucleation and crystal growth kinetics. Specifically, 2-methoxyethanol (2-ME) enables vacuum flash-induced supersaturation for templated nucleation, while NMP facilitates strain-relaxed grain coalescence, and DMF ensures optimal ink rheology. This approach yields pinhole-free films with enlarged grains under ambient conditions (T = ≈30 ± 5 °C, RH = 30 ± 10%). The blade-coated n-i-p perovskite solar cells (active area: 0.08 cm<sup>2</sup>) achieve a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 23.24%, and 5 × 5 cm<sup>2</sup> mini-modules (12 cm<sup>2</sup> active area) reach 22.12%, with merely 4.8% efficiency loss upon 150 times area upscaling. The devices exhibit improved stability, retaining 90% of their initial PCE after 800 h of maximum power point tracking (MPPT) at 25 °C. The approach establishes a unified solution that addresses crystallization precision, ambient compatibility, and industrial manufacturability in perovskite photovoltaics.
Authors
- Kezhou Fan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3953-3317)
- Man Yue Lam (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7259-968X)
- Chenghao Duan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4609-3017)
- Huan Guo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8146-3573)
- Shibing Zou
- Kam Sing Wong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9779-0517)
- Keyou Yan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4380-7325)
- Yuyan Dong
- Ligang Yuan
Institutions
- Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HK)
- State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices
- University of Hong Kong (HK)
- South China University of Technology (CN)
- Nanchang Hangkong University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Small Methods
- Published
- 2025-04-08
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/smtd.202500141
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Perovskite Materials and Applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.46
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- South China University of Technology
- Guangdong Provincial Applied Science and Technology Research and Development Program
- National Key Research and Development Program of China
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
- Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province