Extremely Low-Cost and Green Cellulose Passivating Perovskites for Stable and High-Performance Solar Cells

The fast evolution of metal halide perovskite solar cells has opened a new chapter in the field of renewable energy. High-quality perovskite films as the active layers are essential for both high efficiency and long-term stability. Here, the perovskite films with enlarged crystal grain size and decreased defect density are fabricated by introducing the extremely low-cost and green polymer, ethyl cellulose (EC), into the perovskite layer. The addition of EC triggers hydrogen bonding interactions between EC and the perovskite, passivating the charge defect traps at the grain boundaries. The long chain of EC further acts as a scaffold for the perovskite structure, eliminating the annealing-induced lattice strain during the film fabrication process. The resulting devices with the EC additive exhibit a remarkably enhanced average power conversion efficiency from 17.11 to 19.27% and an improvement of all device parameters. The hysteresis index is found to decrease by three times from 0.081 to 0.027, which is attributed to suppressed ion migration and surface charge trapping. In addition, the defect passivation by EC significantly improves the environmental stability of the perovskite films, yielding devices that retain 80% of their initial efficiency after 30 days in ambient air at 45% relative humidity, whereas the pristine devices without EC fully degrade. This work provides a low-cost and green avenue for passivating defects that improves both the efficiency and operational stability of perovskite solar cells.