Two interfaces, one molecule
Perovskite solar cells lose efficiency and stability when they are scaled up from laboratory squares to full modules. A team from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the CATL 21C Lab at the Fujian Science and Technology Innovation Laboratory for Energy Devices of China, and the Shanghai Non-carbon Energy Conversion and Utilization Institute addressed two interfaces at once.
The researchers introduced 5-aminovaleric acid hydroiodide (5AVAI) as a bifunctional molecular spacer during fabrication. Its carboxyl group anchors to the self-assembled monolayer that sits under the perovskite, improving surface wettability and molecular alignment. Its amino group interacts with the perovskite and transport layers, tightening the contact between them. No extra post-processing step is needed.
Numbers on a 10 cm module
As the perovskite crystallises, part of the 5AVAI migrates toward the upper surface, passivating defects and relieving lattice strain. Using that in-situ approach, the team reported a power conversion efficiency of 22.31 per cent, with 21.69 per cent certified, on 10 cm by 10 cm modules with a 64 square centimetre aperture area, produced by scalable slot-die coating.
The durability numbers matter as much as the efficiency. The modules held 95.6 per cent of their initial efficiency after 2,000 hours of continuous operation at 75°C, among the best results reported for large-area perovskite modules.
Why scaling still hurts
Small-area perovskite cells now exceed 27 per cent efficiency, but transferring that performance to commercial module sizes has been the hard part: coating a large surface evenly is difficult, and the interconnections between cell strips create dead areas that generate no power.
By fixing wettability, interfacial contact and strain in a single fabrication step, the method offers a simpler route to manufacturing long-lived perovskite products. Grid-scale deployment will depend on how those results hold up on industrial coating lines.
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