Radical Form of PbI₂: A New Defect Passivator for Efficient Perovskite Solar Cells

PbI₂ is a commonly used passivator for defect passivation in perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However, the poor conductivity nature of PbI₂ may limit the further improvement of device performance. Here, we report a radical form of PbI₂ with high conductivity to passivate defects for efficient PSCs through a combination of <i>N</i>,<i>N</i>,<i>N</i>′,<i>N</i>′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB). When PbI₂ is combined with TMB, 4 orders of magnitude higher conductivity will be achieved owing to the formation of a TMB-PbI₂ radical. As a result, the device performance is impressively increased from 20.48 to 22.63%. In addition, the device stability is also greatly improved and 95% of the initial efficiency is retained after aging at 85 °C for 600 h.