Record-Efficiency Printable Hole-Conductor-Free Mesoscopic Perovskite Solar Cells Enabled by the Multifunctional Schiff Base Derivative.

Tailoring multifunctional additives for performing interfacial modifications, improving crystallization, and passivating defects is instrumental for the fabrication of efficient and stable perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Here, a Schiff base derivative, (chloromethylene) dimethyliminium chloride (CDCl), is introduced as an additive to modify the interface between the mesoporous TiO electron transport layer and the MAPbI light absorber during the annealing process. CDCl chemically links to TiO and MAPbI through coordination and hydrogen bonding, respectively, and results in the construction of fast electron extraction channels. CDCl also optimizes the energy-level alignment of the TiO/MAPbI heterojunction and improves the pore-filling and crystallization of MAPbI in the mesoscopic scaffold, which inhibits nonradiative recombination and eliminates open-circuit voltage losses. As a result, an impressive power conversion efficiency of 19.74%, which is the best one ever reported, is obtained for printable carbon-based hole-conductor-free PSCs based on MAPbI.