Over 20% Efficiency in Methylammonium Lead Iodide Perovskite Solar Cells with Enhanced Stability via “in Situ Solidification” of the TiO₂ Compact Layer

In methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI3) perovskite solar cells (PSCs), the device performance is strongly influenced by the TiO2 electron transport layer (ETL). Typically, the ETL needs to simultaneously be thin and pinhole-free to have high transmittance and avoid shunting. In this work, we develop an “in situ solidification” process following spin coating in which the titanium-based precursor (titanium(diisopropoxide) bis(2,4-pentanedionate)) is dried under vacuum to rapidly achieve continuous TiO2 layers. We refer to this as “gas-phase quenching”. This results in thin (60 ± 10 nm), uniform, and pinhole-free TiO2 films. The PSCs based on the gas-phase quenched TiO2 exhibits improved power conversion efficiency, with a median value of 18.23% (champion value of 20.43%), compared to 9.03 and 14.09% for the untreated devices. Gas-phase quenching is further shown to be effective in enabling efficient charge transfer at the MAPbI3/TiO2 heterointerface. Furthermore, the stability of the gas-phase quenched devices is enhanced in ambient air as well as under 1 sun illumination. In addition, we achieve 12.1% efficiency in upscaled devices (1.1 cm2 active area).