Ambient Fabrication of Organic–Inorganic Hybrid Perovskite Solar Cells

Organic–inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have attracted significant attention in recent years due to their high‐power conversion efficiency, simple fabrication, and low material cost. However, due to their high sensitivity to moisture and oxygen, high efficiency PSCs are mainly constructed in an inert environment. This has led to significant concerns associated with the long‐term stability and manufacturing costs, which are some of the major limitations for the commercialization of this cutting‐edge technology. Over the past few years, excellent progress in fabricating PSCs in ambient conditions has been made. These advancements have drawn considerable research interest in the photovoltaic community and shown great promise for the successful commercialization of efficient and stable PSCs. In this review, after providing an overview to the influence of an ambient fabrication environment on perovskite films, recent advances in fabricating efficient and stable PSCs in ambient conditions are discussed. Along with discussing the underlying challenges and limitations, the most appropriate strategies to fabricate efficient PSCs under ambient conditions are summarized along with multiple roadmaps to assist in the future development of this technology

Efficient Production of Phosphorene Nanosheets via Shear Stress Mediated Exfoliation for Low-Temperature Perovskite Solar Cells

A simple and fast "top-down" protocol is introduced herein to prepare solution processable few-layer phosphorene nanosheets using vortex fluidic mediated exfoliation under near-infrared (NIR) pulsed laser irradiation. This novel shear-exfoliation method requires short processing times and produces highly crystalline, atomically thin phosphorene nanosheets (4.3 +/- 0.4 nm). The as-prepared phosphorene nanosheets are used as an effective electron transporting material (ETM) for low-temperature processed, planar n-i-p perovskite solar cells (PSCs). With the addition of phosphorene, the average power conversion efficiency (PCE) increases from 14.32% to 16.53% with a maximum PCE of 17.85% observed for the phosphorene incorporated PSCs which is comparable to the devices made using the traditional high-temperature protocol. Experimental and theoretical (density-functional theory) investigations reveal the PCE improvements are due to the high carrier mobility and suitable band energy alignment of the phosphorene. The work not only paves the way for novel synthesis of 2D materials, but also opens a new avenue in using phosphorene as an efficient ETM in photovoltaic devices