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Tailoring passivators for highly efficient and stable perovskite solar cells

Nature Reviews Chemistry volume 7, pages 632–652 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

There is an ongoing global effort to advance emerging perovskite solar cells (PSCs), and many of these endeavours are focused on developing new compositions, processing methods and passivation strategies. In particular, the use of passivators to reduce the defects in perovskite materials has been demonstrated to be an effective approach for enhancing the photovoltaic performance and long-term stability of PSCs. Organic passivators have received increasing attention since the late 2010s as their structures and properties can readily be modified. First, this Review discusses the main types of defect in perovskite materials and reviews their properties. We examine the deleterious impact of defects on device efficiency and stability and highlight how defects facilitate extrinsic degradation pathways. Second, the proven use of different passivator designs to mitigate these negative effects is discussed, and possible defect passivation mechanisms are presented. Finally, we propose four specific directions for future research, which, in our opinion, will be crucial for unlocking the full potential of PSCs using the concept of defect passivation.

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Fig. 1: Introduction to metal halide perovskites and the concept of passivation.
Fig. 2: Point and extended defects in metal halide perovskites.
Fig. 3: Defect passivation mechanisms in perovskite materials.
Fig. 4: Molecular structures of representative examples of organic small molecules used as passivators.
Fig. 5: Molecular structures of representative examples of organic ammonium salts used as passivators.
Fig. 6: Molecular structures of representative polymeric passivators.

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Acknowledgements

This work was sponsored by the Shanghai Pujiang Program (22PJ1401200). M.G. acknowledges funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, specifically the GRAPHENE Flagship Core 3 project (grant no. 881603).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Photovoltaic Science and Technology, Shanghai Frontiers Science Research Base of Intelligent Optoelectronics and Perception, Institute of Optoelectronics, Fudan University, Shanghai, P. R. China

    Hong Zhang & Junhao Chu

  2. Department of Materials Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, P. R. China

    Hong Zhang & Junhao Chu

  3. Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces, Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Lukas Pfeifer, Shaik M. Zakeeruddin & Michael Grätzel

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Contributions

H.Z. and L.P. contributed equally to this work. M.G. and S.M.Z. contributed to the writing and editing of this manuscript. H.Z. and L.P. researched the literature for the article and contributed to the discussion of content and writing. J.C. contributed to the discussion and reviewing of the manuscript.

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Zhang, H., Pfeifer, L., Zakeeruddin, S.M. et al. Tailoring passivators for highly efficient and stable perovskite solar cells. Nat Rev Chem 7, 632–652 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-023-00510-0

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