Spray deposition of NiOx hole transport layer and perovskite photoabsorber in fabrication of photovoltaic mini-module

Organic-inorganic lead halide perovskite solar cells have received global attention, and their upscaling to perovskite solar modules under ambient conditions merits investigation. Herein, an upscaled mini-module consisting of five serially interconnected cells demonstrate a power conversion efficiency of 6.18% measured on an aperture area of 10.4 cm2. The perovskite photovoltaic mini-module with an inverted configuration is realized on a 5 × 5.5 cm2 ITO glass substrate using a technique combining ultrasonic spray-coating of both the NiOx hole transport layer (HTL) and perovskite photoabsorber layer with mechanical scribing for module patterning. The influence of the post-annealing duration (3, 5, 8, 10, and 15 min) of the spray-coated NiOx films under optimized fabrication conditions of the perovskite mini-module is investigated. The bulk properties of the NiOx thin films as functions of annealing time and their interfacial properties with methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI3) are comprehensively discussed. The use of spray-coating to assemble the NiOx HTL/perovskite photoactive layer of the mini-module demonstrate the significant potential of this technique to facilitate scalable production of perovskite-based photovoltaic modules. ? 2021 Elsevier B.V.