Coherent growth of high-Miller-index facets enhances perovskite solar cells

Shunde Li; Yun Xiao; Rui Su; Weidong Xu; Deying Luo; Pengru Huang; Linjie Dai; Peng Chen; Pietro Caprioglio; Karim A Elmestekawy; Milos Dubajic; Cullen Chosy; Juntao Hu; Irfan Habib; Akash Dasgupta; Dengyang Guo; Yorrick Boeije; Szymon J Zelewski; Zhangyuchang Lu; Tianyu Huang; Qiuyang Li; Jingmin Wang; Haoming Yan; Hao-Hsin Chen; Chunsheng Li; Barnaby A I Lewis; Dengke Wang; Jiang Wu; Lichen Zhao; Bing Han; Jianpu Wang; Laura M Herz; James R Durrant; Kostya S Novoselov; Zheng-Hong Lu; Qihuang Gong; Samuel D Stranks; Henry J Snaith; Rui Zhu

doi:10.1038/s41586-024-08159-5

Coherent growth of high-Miller-index facets enhances perovskite solar cells

Nature. 2024 Nov;635(8040):874-881. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-08159-5. Epub 2024 Oct 14.

Authors

Shunde Li^#¹, Yun Xiao^#², Rui Su^#¹, Weidong Xu^#^{3

4}, Deying Luo⁵, Pengru Huang⁶, Linjie Dai³, Peng Chen¹, Pietro Caprioglio², Karim A Elmestekawy², Milos Dubajic⁴, Cullen Chosy^{3

4}, Juntao Hu⁷, Irfan Habib², Akash Dasgupta², Dengyang Guo³, Yorrick Boeije^{3

4}, Szymon J Zelewski^{3

4

8}, Zhangyuchang Lu¹, Tianyu Huang¹, Qiuyang Li¹, Jingmin Wang⁹, Haoming Yan¹, Hao-Hsin Chen¹, Chunsheng Li¹⁰, Barnaby A I Lewis^{3

4}, Dengke Wang⁷, Jiang Wu¹⁰, Lichen Zhao¹, Bing Han¹¹, Jianpu Wang^{9

12}, Laura M Herz², James R Durrant^{13

14}, Kostya S Novoselov⁶, Zheng-Hong Lu^{7

15}, Qihuang Gong^{16

17

18}, Samuel D Stranks^{19

20}, Henry J Snaith²¹, Rui Zhu^{22

23

24}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory for Artificial Microstructure and Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Frontiers Science Center for Nano-optoelectronics and Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Peking University, Beijing, China.
² Clarendon Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
³ Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
⁴ Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
⁵ International Institute for Interdisciplinary and Frontiers, Beihang University, Beijing, China. bhldy@buaa.edu.cn.
⁶ Institute for Functional Intelligent Materials, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
⁷ Department of Physics, Center for Optoelectronics Engineering Research, Yunnan University, Kunming, China.
⁸ Department of Experimental Physics, Faculty of Fundamental Problems of Technology, Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Wrocław, Poland.
⁹ Key Laboratory of Flexible Electronics (KLOFE), Institute of Advanced Materials (IAM) and School of Flexible Electronics (Future Technologies), Nanjing Tech University (NanjingTech), Nanjing, China.
¹⁰ Yangtze Delta Institute of Optoelectronics, Peking University, Nantong, China.
¹¹ Eastern Institute for Advanced Study, Eastern Institute of Technology, Ningbo, China. bhan@eitech.edu.cn.
¹² School of Materials Science and Engineering and School of Microelectronics and Control Engineering, Changzhou University, Changzhou, China.
¹³ Department of Chemistry and Centre for Processable Electronics, Imperial College London, London, UK.
¹⁴ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Swansea, Swansea, UK.
¹⁵ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
¹⁶ State Key Laboratory for Artificial Microstructure and Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Frontiers Science Center for Nano-optoelectronics and Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Peking University, Beijing, China. qhgong@pku.edu.cn.
¹⁷ Yangtze Delta Institute of Optoelectronics, Peking University, Nantong, China. qhgong@pku.edu.cn.
¹⁸ Collaborative Innovation Center of Extreme Optics, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, China. qhgong@pku.edu.cn.
¹⁹ Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. sds65@cam.ac.uk.
²⁰ Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. sds65@cam.ac.uk.
²¹ Clarendon Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. henry.snaith@physics.ox.ac.uk.
²² State Key Laboratory for Artificial Microstructure and Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Frontiers Science Center for Nano-optoelectronics and Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Peking University, Beijing, China. iamzhurui@pku.edu.cn.
²³ Yangtze Delta Institute of Optoelectronics, Peking University, Nantong, China. iamzhurui@pku.edu.cn.
²⁴ Collaborative Innovation Center of Extreme Optics, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, China. iamzhurui@pku.edu.cn.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 39401515
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08159-5

Abstract

Obtaining micron-thick perovskite films of high quality is key to realizing efficient and stable positive (p)-intrinsic (i)-negative (n) perovskite solar cells^1,2, but it remains a challenge. Here we report an effective method for producing high-quality, micron-thick formamidinium-based perovskite films by forming coherent grain boundaries, in which high-Miller-index-oriented grains grow on the low-Miller-index-oriented grains in a stabilized atmosphere. The resulting micron-thick perovskite films, with enhanced grain boundaries and grains, showed stable material properties and outstanding optoelectronic performances. The small-area solar cells achieved efficiencies of 26.1%. The 1-cm² devices and 5 cm × 5 cm mini-modules delivered efficiencies of 24.3% and 21.4%, respectively. The devices processed in a stabilized atmosphere presented a high reproducibility across all four seasons. The encapsulated devices exhibited superior long-term stability under both light and thermal stressors in ambient air.