Publications

In situ nucleophilic substitutional growth of methylammonium lead iodide polycrystals

Alam, Todd M.; Acik, Muge A.; Guo, Fangmin G.; Ren, Yang R.; Lee, Byeongdu L.; Mitchell, JF M.; Kinaci, Alper K.; Chan, Maria C.; Darling, Seth B.

Methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbIx) perovskites are organic-inorganic semiconductors that serve as the light-harvesting component of the photovoltaics, and are desirable with their long diffusion length yielding power conversion efficiencies of ≥22%. Conventional techniques grow perovskites by spin coating precursors on an oxide or a polymer substrate followed by annealing, however, use of high boiling point solvents and high temperatures hinder device stability and performance. Through a one-step, acid-catalyzed nucleophilic-substitutional crystal growth in polar protic solvents, we show evidence for the substrate- and annealing- free production of MAPbIx polycrystals that are metallic-lead-free with negligibly small amount of PbI2 precipitation (<10%). On the basis of this chemical composition, we have devised an in situ growth of highly air (upto ~1.5 months) and thermally-stable (≤300°C), tetragonal-phased, variable-sized polycrystals (~100 nm-10 μm) amendable for large-area deposition, and ultimately, large-scale manufacturing. This method is encouraging for stable optoelectronic devices, and leads to energy-efficient and low-cost processing.