Self-cleaning all-inorganic CsPbIBr2 photovoltaic devices

Solar cells face severe dust contamination issues during outdoor applications. The dust not only blocks incident light but may also cause hot-spot effects, significantly degrading photovoltaic device performance. This study pioneers the integration of self-cleaning functionality into all-inorganic CsPbIBr 2 solar cells by constructing a self-cleaning film (biomimetic film) on the light-receiving surface. The biomimetic film outside the device window features a ZnO nanorod forest microstructure consisting of nanorod clusters and exhibits low surface energy, thus rendering the photovoltaic device surface superhydrophobic and self-cleaning. Balancing self-cleaning functionality with photovoltaic performance, a 2 h hydrothermally grown ZnO nanorod structure proves optimal, yielding a maximum contact angle of 160° and a sliding angle of approximately 3°. Additionally, this study investigates dust’s impact on CsPbIBr 2 photovoltaic device performance: when devices accumulate 6.25 mg/cm² of dust, photovoltaic conversion efficiency decreases by 73%. Although the designed ZnO nanorod forest slightly affects light absorption in solar cells, its overall impact on device performance is minimal. The photovoltaic device with the coupled self-cleaning structure achieves over 90% of the performance of the blank control group, demonstrating a far smaller degradation than that caused by dust contamination.