A synopsis of progressive transition in precursor inks development for metal halide perovskites-based photovoltaic technology

Perovskite solar cell (PSC) technology has received considerable attention due to the rapid escalation of their solar-to-electrical energy conversion, which has recently surpassed 25% for lab-sized solar cells. Other benefits such as their fabrication through solution processing enable new opportunities for scaling up and rapid production. These features may play a key role in realizing quick installations worldwide, helping to meet the global energy production and consumption demand with a realistic energy pay-back time. This report provides an overview of the progress in developing liquid precursor inks for producing a variety of organic–inorganic halide perovskite-based light absorbing layers. In recent years, a variety of configurations for PSC technology have been reported, where intelligent inks of perovskite precursors have been formulated to facilitate novel designs with impressive solar-to-electrical energy conversions and promising stability. This report highlights the evolution of these novel perovskite precursor ink formulations, and discusses the emerging trends in developing efficient, scalable, and robust PSC technology. Moreover, the classification, advantages, and limitations of various types of perovskite precursor ink are addressed. Specifically, single- and multi-cation-based ink formulations are discussed in relation to their impact on producing efficient solar cells, which provides an overview of the recent progress in the development of this emerging and low-cost solar cell technology. Overall, this synopsis provides the current state of the art in designing novel perovskite precursor inks to be used in producing high performance, efficient, scalable, and stable configurations of perovskite solar cell technology.