Blade-Coated Electron Transport Layers to Enable Scalable Perovskite Photovoltaics

With the rapid improvements in performance of perovskite photovoltaics, scale represents one of the few remaining hurdles to commercial viability. The active perovskite layer has previously been deposited via a scalable solution-based method, blade coating. Associated transport layers, however, are often deposited using energy- and capital-intensive methods. Here, we present processes by which the electron transport layer, a mixed fullerene solution, and cathode buffer layer, bathocuproine, are blade-coated in an ambient environment to fabricate large-area solar devices that match or outperform the equivalent film deposited via thermal evaporation. With this work, a high-performing, scalable perovskite solar cell can be manufactured in ambient conditions from top to bottom contact.