Novel Green Solvent for Sustainable Fabrication of Quasi-2D Perovskite Solar Cells

Abstract

Despite the remarkable advances in the field of perovskite photovoltaics, the use of toxic solvents for their fabrication poses a significant challenge to their scale-up and commercialization. The vast majority of studies rely on using the highly hazardous N, N-Dimethylformamide (DMF), with green alternatives remaining scarce. In this work, the use of glycerol formal (Gly-F) is reported as a green solvent for fabricating quasi-2D (n = 5) perovskite solar cells. Quasi-2D perovskite films processed from Gly-F exhibit a high degree of uniformity and a compact microstructure. When integrated into solar cells, the green solvent-processed films reach a promising power conversion efficiency of 14.53%. This performance is lower than that of DMF-based perovskites, most likely due to the presence of laterally oriented low n perovskite phases. Interestingly, while the performance of DMF-based devices is rather irreproducible, the performance of Gly-F-based devices is robust and consistent. These results demonstrate the potential of Gly-F- as a promising green alternative to DMF.