Bilateral alkylamine for suppressing charge recombination and improving stability in blade-coated perovskite solar cells

Sci Adv. 2019 Mar 8;5(3):eaav8925. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aav8925. eCollection 2019 Mar.

Abstract

The power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are already higher than that of other thin film technologies, but laboratory cell-fabrication methods are not scalable. Here, we report an additive strategy to enhance the efficiency and stability of PSCs made by scalable blading. Blade-coated PSCs incorporating bilateral alkylamine (BAA) additives achieve PCEs of 21.5 (aperture, 0.08 cm2) and 20.0% (aperture, 1.1 cm2), with a record-small open-circuit voltage deficit of 0.35 V under AM1.5G illumination. The stabilized PCE reaches 22.6% under 0.3 sun. Anchoring monolayer bilateral amino groups passivates the defects at the perovskite surface and enhances perovskite stability by exposing the linking hydrophobic alkyl chain. Grain boundaries are reinforced by BAA and are more resistant to mechanical bending and electron beam damage. BAA improves the device shelf lifetime to >1000 hours and operation stability to >500 hours under light, with 90% of the initial efficiency retained.