Oriented Molecular Bridge Constructs Homogeneous Buried Interface for Perovskite Solar Cells with Efficiency Over 25.3%

Buried interface optimization matters the efficiency improvement of planar perovskite solar cells (PSCs), and the molecular bridge is reported to be an effective approach. Herein, a molecular bridge is constructed at buried interface using 4-chloro-3-sulfamoylbenzoic acid (CSBA), and its preferred arrangement is systematically investigated. It is elucidated that the CSBA molecular is prone to be orientationally absorbed on TiO2 surface through COOH-Ti, and then connect with perovskite through S═O-Pb, resulting in a feasible oriented molecular bridge. Contributing to the passivated interfacial defects, optimized interfacial energy level, and released perovskite tensile stress, resulting from the oriented CSBA molecular bridge, the PSCs with an active area of 0.08 cm2 achieve a certified power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 25.32%, the highest among the TiO2-based planar PSCs. Encouragingly, the PSCs with an active area of 1 cm2 achieve a champion PCE of 24.20%, significantly promoting the efficiency progress of large-area PSCs. In addition, the PSCs with oriented CSBA molecular bridge possess enhanced stability, the unencapsulated PSCs can maintain ≈91% and ≈85% of their initial PCE after 3000 h aging under ambient condition and 1200 h aging under exposure to UV irradiation.