The fabrication of homogeneous perovskite films on non-wetting interfaces enabled by physical modification

Conjugated polymers are commonly used as effective hole transport materials (HTMs) for preparation of high-performance perovskite solar cells. However, the hydrophobic nature of these materials renders it difficult to deposit photovoltaic perovskite layers on top via solution processing. In this article, we report a generic surface modification strategy that enables the deposition of uniform and dense perovskite films on top of non-wetting interfaces. In contrast to the previous proposed chemical modifications which might alter the optoelectronic properties of the interfacial layers, we realized a nondestructive surface modification enabled by introducing a layer of insulating mesoporous aluminum oxide (Al2O3). The surface energies of the typical non-wetting hole-transport layers (PTAA, P3HT, and Poly-TPD) were significantly reduced by the Al2O3 modification. Benefiting from the intact optoelectronic properties of the HTMs, perovskite solar cells deposited on these interface materials show full open-circuit voltages (VOC) with high fill factors (FF) up to 80%. Our method provides an effective avenue for exploiting the full potential of the existing as well as newly developed non-wetting interface materials for the fabrication of high-performance inverted perovskite solar cells.