Hybrid halide perovskite solar cells
(PSCs) have emerged
as the
next-generation photovoltaic technology. Compared to steady silicon
solar cells, PSCs are facilely processable but easily generate defects/traps
during the thin-film fabrication from the solution. To passivate these
defects, which have been considered as the origin of PSC instability,
numerous large-sized organic cations (LSOCs) were applied via post-treatment
methods. Unfortunately, along with the passivation on defects, these
LSOCs could also react with regular perovskite phases and convert
them into layered perovskite phases with poorer optoelectronic performances.
Herein, we have designed carbazole ethylammonium iodide (CzEAI), a
LSOC salt which exhibits a variation from monovalent to divalent state.
Importantly, unlike traditional LSOC passivators in monovalent states
mostly consumed by a regular perovskite phase and merely affecting
the upper domain in thin films, CzEA in monovalent state could penetrate
through the whole domain in perovskite films and then accurately convert
into a divalent state at defect sites and thus realize a full-scale
passivation in PSCs. Both simulation and experimental results proved
that a CzEA passivator could overcome the formation of poor optoelectronic
layered perovskite phases. As a result, the CzEA passivated PSC demonstrated
an optimized photon-to-electron conversion efficiency (PCE) of 24.14%
together with a significantly improved long-term stability over 5000
h.