Multiple Passivation of Electronic Defects for Efficient and Stable Perovskite Solar Cells

Electronic defects and grain boundaries of perovskite films will significantly deteriorate both the efficiency and the stability of perovskite solar cells (PSCs), and various methods aimed to reduce these defects are proposed. Herein, an organic solid molecule of pyridinedicarboxylic acid (PDA) with one pyridine and two carboxylic acid groups is used as a passivating agent to cure the defects by regulating the perovskite microstructures in a multiple manner. The defects located at both the surfaces and grain boundaries of polycrystalline MAPbI₃ perovskites are simultaneously passivated through the multiple coordination effects between the used functional groups and uncoordinated Pb²⁺, regardless of the substitution sites of the carboxylic acid and pyridine. Impressively, the PDA-passivated inverted PSCs achieve remarkably enhanced power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) from 16.43% to nearly 19% and maintain over 90% of its original PCE after 1300 h under an inert environment. These findings indicate that the commercially available PDA molecule emerges as an efficient passivating agent of perovskite defects capable of stimulating the combined effects of the multiple functional groups, which is highly promising for the practical applications of PSCs with both high efficiency and good stability.