Recent advances in the use of organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites for optoelectronics have been rapid, with reported power conversion efficiencies of up to 22 per cent for perovskite solar cells. Improvements in stability have also enabled testing over a timescale of thousands of hours. However, large-scale deployment of such cells will also require the ability to produce large-area, uniformly high-quality perovskite films. A key challenge is to overcome the substantial reduction in power conversion efficiency when a small device is scaled up: a reduction from over 20 per cent to about 10 per cent is found when a common aperture area of about 0.1 square centimetres is increased to more than 25 square centimetres. Here we report a new deposition route for methyl ammonium lead halide perovskite films that does not rely on use of a common solvent or vacuum: rather, it relies on the rapid conversion of amine complex precursors to perovskite films, followed by a pressure application step. The deposited perovskite films were free of pin-holes and highly uniform. Importantly, the new deposition approach can be performed in air at low temperatures, facilitating fabrication of large-area perovskite devices. We reached a certified power conversion efficiency of 12.1 per cent with an aperture area of 36.1 square centimetres for a mesoporous TiO-based perovskite solar module architecture.

Here we report a solution-processing strategy to stabilize the perovskite-based heterostructure. Strong Pb–Cl and Pb–O bonds formed between a [CH(NH2)2]x[CH3NH3]1−xPb1+yI3 film with a Pb-rich surface and a chlorinated graphene oxide layer. The constructed heterostructure can selectively extract photogenerated charge carriers and impede the loss of decomposed components from soft perovskites, thereby reducing damage to the organic charge-transporting semiconductors. Perovskite solar cells with an aperture area of 1.02 square centimeters maintained 90% of their initial efficiency of 21% after operation at the maximum power point under AM1.5G solar light (100 milliwatts per square centimeter) at 60°C for 1000 hours. The stabilized output efficiency of the aged device was further certified by an accredited test center.

Organic–inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are a promising photovoltaic technology that has rapidly developed in recent years. Nevertheless, a large number of ionic defects within perovskite absorber can serve as non‐radiative recombination center to limit the performance of PSCs. Here, organic donor‐π‐acceptor (D‐π‐A) molecules with different electron density distributions are employed to efficiently passivate the defects in the perovskite films. The X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis shows that the strong electron donating N,N‐dibutylaminophenyl unit in a molecule causes an increase in the electron density of the passivation site that is a carboxylate group, resulting in better binding with the defects of under‐coordinated Pb2+ cations. Carrier lifetime in the perovskite films measured by the time‐resolved photoluminescence spectrum is also prolonged by an increase in donation ability of the D‐π‐A molecules. As a consequence, these benefits contribute to an increase of 80 mV in the open circuit voltage of the devices, enabling a maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 20.43%, in comparison with PCE of 18.52% for the control device. The authors' findings provide a novel strategy for efficient defect passivation in the perovskite solar cells based on controlling the electronic configuration of passivation molecules.

Tin perovskite solar cells (TPSCs) are rising as the most promising candidates for lead-free PSCs. However, the randomly crystallized tin halide perovskite with high concentration of defects is still the...

Perovskite solar cells are a promising low-cost and highly efficient photovoltaic technology. However, there's still a big challenge in forming large area and uniform perovskite films with a high material utilization ratio. Here we provide a novel continuous processing method, soft-cover deposition, to control the formation of perovskite films in ambient air. High quality films were successfully deposited with less structural defects and high material utilization ratios. Excellent photovoltaic performance was also achieved in a 1 cm 2 unit solar cell, highly reproducible over a large area. The present deposition technology paves the way for future application of high cost-performance perovskite solar cells and the formation of solution processed thin-films.