Improving the efficiency and stability of in-air fabricated perovskite solar cells using the mixed antisolvent of methyl acetate and chloroform

Antisolvents play a significant role in obtaining high-quality perovskite films during the fabrication process. This paper reports a novel mixture of two antisolvents (methyl acetate and chloroform) that proves effective for fabricating high-quality perovskite films in a high humidity ambient. The results show that the use of methyl acetate alone as the antisolvent enables the fabrication of dense perovskite films (MAPbI3) in a high humidity ambient, but with a rough surface, while mixing methyl acetate with an appropriate amount of chloroform produces not only dense perovskite films but also smooth surfaces. As a result, the power conversion efficiency (PCE) is increased from 17.1% of the devices treated with methyl acetate alone to 18.6% of the devices treated with the mixed antisolvent of methyl acetate (70%) and chloroform (30%). The stability of the devices was also improved significantly for the devices treated with the mixed antisolvent of methyl acetate (85%) and chloroform (15%), which exhibit a slow degradation of 7% in PCE after 552 h of storage, compared to 22% for the devices treated with methyl acetate alone.