Amorphous grain boundary engineering for scalable flexible perovskite photovoltaics with improved stability
摘要
Flexible perovskite solar cells hold promises for lightweight photovoltaics, yet their performance, durability and scalability lag behind rigid counterparts. Conventional efficiency-enhancing strategies, such as grain enlargement or lead iodide passivation, often degrade mechanical robustness. Here we combine data-driven machine learning with a passivation approach to overcome this trade-off. We design β-cyclodextrin derivatives that form in situ self-assembled amorphous grain boundaries, enhancing optoelectronic properties and mechanical resilience through coordination bonds, hydrogen bonds and host–guest interactions. We achieve flexible solar cells with an efficiency of 24.52% and enhanced durability: 92.5% efficiency retention after 10,000 bending cycles, 95% after 300 days in ambient air and 80% under 650 h of maximum power point tracking. We demonstrate modules with certified efficiencies of 21.09% (aperture area: 21.07 cm2) and 17.38% (aperture area: 0.5 m2, 86.9 W). Larger-area module (aperture area: 1.4725 m2) delivers 226 W power output and power per weight of 558 W kg−1. Our work addresses critical barriers in flexible perovskite photovoltaics.