Surface defect passivation, which plays a vital role in achieving high-efficiency perovskite solar cells (PSCs) in a spin-coating process, is rarely compatible with a printing process. Currently, printing PSCs with high efficiency remains a challenge, as only a few laboratories realized an efficiency of over 20%. In this work, zwitterionic compounds 2-hydroxyethyl trimethyl ammonium chloride (HETACl) and butyltrimethylammonium chloride (BTACl) were introduced, both of which can spontaneously adsorb on the surface perovskite and form an ultrathin passivation layer by a dip coating method. The complex formed by the strong interaction of HETACl with MAI on the surface of the perovskite film leads to the formation of a rough perovskite surface, which affects the enhancement of device performance. BTACl with a chemically inert side chain induces a weak interaction with the perovskite. It is demonstrated that BTACl not only passivates surface defects of the perovskite but also heals the grain boundaries and results in more uniform crystallizations. Finally, PSCs upon BTACl treatment were blade-coated in an ambient environment with a relative humidity of <50%, which produced a champion efficiency of 20.5% with negligible hysteresis, and the active area of the cell device was 0.095 cm2. After being stored in air for 30 days, unencapsulated PSCs treated with BTACl retained 95% of their initial efficiency, which is far superior to that of the control and those treated with HETACl.
Keywords: blade-coated; defect passivation; perovskite solar cells; surface treatment; zwitterions.