Vacuum Quenching for Large-Area Perovskite Film Deposition

The removal of precursor solvents in perovskite wet films plays a vital role in controlling the quality of perovskite films and devices. The dripping antisolvent method (removing precursor solvents) has made great advances in small-area devices, but this method limits the preparation of large-area perovskite films. Vacuum quenching that evaporates solvents by dropping the pressure is a potential large-area manufacturing approach. Herein, we have conducted a systematic comparative study on these two methods of depositing perovskite films. It is found that vacuum quenching can obtain the same film quality and small-area device efficiency (∼22.5%) as the antisolvent method. However, on a large-area substrate, the fast vacuum quenching rate improves the solvent evaporation efficiency and nucleation density (i.e., forming a large number of crystal nuclei), thereby obtaining a more uniform and stable perovskite film. Notably, the manufacture window exceeds 10 min. As a result, the champion large-area (6 × 6 cm2) perovskite solar module exhibits an impressive efficiency (17.86%) and long-term operational stability. Furthermore, coupling slot-die coating, vacuum quenching can realize the industrial continuous deposition of large-area perovskite films, which is a potential route for large-scale production.