PVTIME – A research team from Jilin University has unveiled a pioneering approach to perovskite solar cell fabrication that addresses a longstanding challenge faced by the industry. Traditional high-efficiency photovoltaic cells require expensive, slow, high-vacuum equipment to create the atomically flat crystal interfaces necessary for effective charge separation. Meanwhile, solution-based perovskite production has been hindered by solvent erosion of the underlying layers during secondary coating.
In their paper published in Joule on 22 April 2026, the team introduces a “solvent-mediated thermal shock epitaxy” strategy. This is the first time that 3D/3D perovskite homojunctions have been grown rapidly in air. The approach uses 2-methoxyethanol (2-ME), a solvent whose solubility decreases with heat, alongside a 176°C thermal shock during blade coating. This process cures new layers in milliseconds and prevents interface dissolution.
The resulting homojunctions feature near-perfect (001) crystal orientation, with a Herman’s orientation factor of -0.3643, and a defect density that is almost an order of magnitude lower than that of traditional films. The device achieves a photoelectric conversion efficiency of 25.58%, a leading figure for homojunction perovskite cells, and demonstrates strong stability in harsh ageing tests, including exposure to high temperatures, high humidity, and prolonged illumination.
This innovative strategy eliminates the need for high-vacuum equipment by enabling high-precision epitaxial growth in ambient air. It leverages solvent inverse temperature solubility and high-speed crystallisation to align crystals uniformly, thereby boosting charge transport and operational stability. This work provides a scalable approach to producing high-efficiency perovskites and offers a universal ‘interface engineering’ framework for solution-processed, multi-layer materials. Future research will focus on flexible devices and tandem cell systems to advance industrialisation.
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