Modified Near-Infrared Annealing Enabled Rapid and Homogeneous Crystallization of Perovskite Films for Efficient Solar Modules

Abstract

Currently, perovskite solar cells have achieved commendable progresses in power conversion efficiency (PCE) and operational stability. However, some conventional laboratory-scale fabrication methods become challenging when scaling up material syntheses or device production. Particularly, the prolonged high-temperature annealing process for the crystallization of perovskites requires a substantial amount of energy consumption and impact the modules’ throughput. Here, we report a modified near-infrared annealing (NIRA) process, which involves the excess PbI₂ engineered crystallization, efficiently reduces the preparation time for perovskite active layer to within 20 s compared to dozens of min in conventional hot plate annealing (HPA) process. The study showed that the incorporated PbI₂ promoted the consistent nucleation of the perovskite film, leading to the subsequent rapid and homogeneous crystallization at the NIRA stage. Thus, highly crystalized perovskite film was realized with even better crystallization performance than conventional HPA-based film. Ultimately, efficient perovskite solar modules of 36 and 100 cm² were readily fabricated with the optimal PCEs of 22.03% and 20.18%, respectively. This study demonstrates, for the first time, the successful achievement of homogeneous and high-quality crystallization in large-area perovskite films through rapid NIRA processing. This approach not only significantly reduces energy consumption during production, but also substantially shortens the manufacturing cycle, paving a new path toward the commercial-scale application of perovskite solar modules.