High annealing temperature induced rapid grain coarsening for efficient perovskite solar cells.

Thermal annealing plays multiple roles in fabricating high quality perovskite films. Generally, it might result in large perovskite grains by elevating annealing temperature, but might also lead to decomposition of perovskite. Here, we study the effects of annealing temperature on the coarsening of perovskite grains in a temperature range from 100 to 250 °C, and find that the coarsening rate of the perovskite grain increase significantly with the annealing temperature. Compared with the perovskite films annealed at 100 °C, high quality perovskite films with large columnar grains are obtained by annealing perovskite precursor films at 250 °C for only 10 s. As a result, the power conversion efficiency of best solar cell increased from 12.35% to 16.35% due to its low recombination rate and high efficient charge transportation in solar cells.

Elucidating the Key Role of a Lewis Base Solvent in the Formation of Perovskite Films Fabricated from the Lewis Adduct Approach.

High-quality perovskite films can be fabricated from Lewis acid-base adducts through molecule exchange. Substantial work is needed to fully understand the formation mechanism of the perovskite films, which helps to further improve their quality. Here, we study the formation of CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite films by introducing some dimethylacetamide into the PbI2/N,N-dimethylformamide solution. We reveal that there are three key processes during the formation of perovskite films through the Lewis acid-base adduct approach: molecule intercalation of solvent into the PbI2 lattice, molecule exchange between the solvent and CH3NH3I, and dissolution-recrystallization of the perovskite grains during annealing. The Lewis base solvents play multiple functions in the above processes. The properties of the solvent, including Lewis basicity and boiling point, play key roles in forming smooth perovskite films with large grains. We also provide some rules for choosing Lewis base additives to prepare high-quality perovskite films through the Lewis adduct approach.