Inkjet printed mesoscopic perovskite solar cells with custom design capability

Abstract

Customizable solar cells are required for aesthetic indoor and outdoor photovoltaic deployment as well as for the freedom of design of small and portable power supplies. We demonstrate that drop on demand inkjet printing can be used for the fabrication of monolithic mesoscopic carbon-based perovskite solar cells by printing all of the oxide layers in the stack as well as the organo-metal halide absorber. Printable inks using environmentally friendly solvents and jetting parameters were developed in order to achieve homogenous and continuous functional layers of the photovoltaic stack. Inkjet printed cells are compared to those obtained from the standard screen-printing route. As a proof of principle, photovoltaic cells with an area of 1.5 cm² and a performance of 9.1% were realized by inkjet printing, which opens up intriguing application possibilities.