Hexamethylenetetramine-mediated growth of grain-boundary-passivation CH3NH3PbI3 for highly reproducible and stable perovskite solar cells

Simultaneously achieving the long-term device stability and reproducibility has proven challenging in perovskite solar cells because solution-processing produced perovskite film with grain boundary is sensitive to moisture. Herein, we develop a hexamethylenetetramine (HMTA)-mediated one-step solution-processing deposition strategy that leads to the formation of high-purity and grain-boundary-passivation CH3NH3PbI3 film and thereby advances cell optoelectronic performance. Through morphological and structural characterizations and theoretical calculations, we demonstrate that HMTA fully occupies the moisture-exposed surface to build a bridge across grain boundary and coordinates with Pb ions to inhibit the formation of detrimental PbI2. Such HMTA-mediated grown CH3NH3PbI3 films achieves a decent augmentation of power conversion efficiency (PCE) from 12.70% to 17.87%. A full coverage of PbI2-free CH3NH3PbI3 surface on ZnO also boosts the device's stability and reproducibility.