Molecular engineering of additives is a highly effective method to increase the efficiency of perovskite solar cells by reducing trap states and charge carrier barriers in bulk and on the thin film surface. In particular, the elimination of undercoordinated lead species that act as the nonradiative charge recombination center or contain defects that may limit interfacial charge transfer is critical for producing a highly efficient triple-cation perovskite solar cell. Here, 2-iodoacetamide (2I-Ac), 2-bromoacetamide (2Br-Ac), and 2-chloroacetamide (2Cl-Ac) molecules, which can be coordinated with lead, have been used by adding them into a chlorobenzene antisolvent to eliminate the defects encountered in the triple-cation perovskite thin film. The passivation process has been carried out with the coordination between the oxygen anion (-) and the lead (+2) cation on the enolate molecule, which is in the resonance structure of the molecules. The Spiro-OMeTAD/triple-cation perovskite interface has been improved by surface passivation by releasing HX (X = I, Br) as a byproduct because of the separation of alpha hydrogen on the molecule. As a result, a solar cell with a negligible hysteresis operating at 19.5% efficiency has been produced by using the 2Br-Ac molecule, compared to the 17.6% efficiency of the reference cell.
© 2022 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.