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Screen printing process control for coating high throughput titanium dioxide films toward printable mesoscopic perovskite solar cells

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Abstract

Screen printing technique has been widely applied for the manufacturing of both traditional silicon solar cells and emerging photovoltaics such as dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) and perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Particularly, we have developed a printable mesoscopic PSC based on a triple layer scaffold of TiO2/ZrO2/carbon. The deposition of the scaffold is entirely based on screen printing process, which provides a promising prospect for low-cost photovoltaics. However, the optimal thickness of the TiO2 layer for fabricating efficient printable PSCs is much smaller than the typical thickness of screen printed films. Here, we tune the concentration of the pastes and the printing parameters for coating TiO2 films, and successfully print TiO2 films with the thickness of 500–550 nm. The correlation between the thickness of the films and printing parameters such as the solid content and viscosity of the pastes, the printing speed and pressure, and the temperature has been investigated. Besides, the edge effect that the edge of the TiO2 films possesses a much larger thickness and printing positional accuracy have been studied. This work will significantly benefit the further development of printable mesoscopic PSCs.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 21702069, 91433203 and 61474049), the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (863) (No. 2015AA034601), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, the Science and Technology Department of Hubei Province (No. 2017AAA190), the 111 Project (No. B07038), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2017M612452), and the Double first-class research funding of China-EU Institute for Clean and Renewable Energy (Nos. ICARE-RP-2018-SOLAR-001 and ICARE-RP-2018-SOLAR-002).

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  1. These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Michael Grätzel Center for Mesoscopic Solar Cells, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, China-EU Institute for Clean and Renewable Energy, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Zhining Wan, Mi Xu, Zhengyang Fu, Da Li, Anyi Mei, Yue Hu, Yaoguang Rong & Hongwei Han

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  1. Zhining Wan
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  2. Mi Xu
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Correspondence to Yaoguang Rong.

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Additional information

Zhining Wan is a master student at Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics (WNLO)/Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST). He received his B.S. degree from Wuhan University of Science and Technology in 2016. His main research is focused on screen printing techniques for printable mesoscopic perovskite solar cells.

Mi Xu is a postdoctoral researcher at Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics (WNLO)/Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST). He received his B.S. degree in Material Physics from Wuhan University in 2009, and Ph.D. degree in Optics Engineering from HUST in 2014. He then worked in a commercial company and studied on OLED with solution process. In 2016, he joined WNLO/HUST. His main research interests include perovskite solar cells, mesoscopic structure materials, and solution process technology.

Da Li is a master student at Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics (WNLO)/Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST). He received his B.S. degree in Materials Science and Engineering from China University of Geosciences in 2017. His main research interests include the fabrication and interface modification of perovskite solar cells.

Zhengyang Fu is a master student at Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics (WNLO)/Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST). He received his B.S. degree from Yunnan University in 2015, His main research interests include the encapsulation and stability of mesoscopic perovskite solar cells.

Anyi Mei is an associate professor at Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics (WNLO)/Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST). He received his B.E. degree in Materials Science and Engineering (2013) and Ph. D. degree in Optical Engineering (2018) from HUST. His research interests are focused on printable mesoscopic perovskite solar cells and related materials.

Yue Hu is an associate professor at Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics (WNLO)/Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST). She received her B.S. degree in Applied Chemistry from East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST) in 2012, and Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from University of Edinburgh in 2016. Her current research focuses on designing and synthesizing novel organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite materials and photovoltaics.

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Wan, Z., Xu, M., Fu, Z. et al. Screen printing process control for coating high throughput titanium dioxide films toward printable mesoscopic perovskite solar cells. Front. Optoelectron. 12, 344–351 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12200-019-0904-7

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