Passivation of Grain Boundary by Squaraine Zwitterions for Defect Passivation and Efficient Perovskite Solar Cells

Unavoidable defects in grain boundaries (GBs) are detrimental and critically influence the organometal halide perovskite performance and stability. To address this issue, semiconducting molecules have been employed to passivate traps along perovskite GBs. Here, we designed and synthesized three squaraine molecules (SQ) with zwitterionic structure to interact with under-coordinated Pb²⁺ and passivate Pb-I antisite defects. Density functional theory calculation shows symmetric O atoms could coordinate with perovskite grains simultaneously, resulting in continuous charge distribution at the SQ-perovskite interface. The energetic traps distribution in CH₃NH₃PbI₃ perovskite is influenced significantly by the interaction between SQ and perovskite as analyzed by thermally stimulated current, in which the deep-level defects are considerably reduced due to efficient SQ passivation. In addition, we explore how SQ molecules with different energy offset affect the charge extraction, which is suggested to facilitate exciton separation at the perovskite-SQ interface. These benefits lead to enhanced perovskite efficiency from 15.77 to 18.83% with the fill factor approaching 80%, which is among the highest efficiency reported for MAPbI₃ solar cells fabricated in an ambient environment at 60% relative humidity (RH). Considerable retardation of perovskite device degradation was achieved, retaining 90% of initial efficiency when kept 600 h at 60 ± 5% RH.