With the rapid development of photovoltaic technology, perovskite solar cells (PSCs) with high efficiency and low cost have attracted much attention, which have the potential to replace traditional crystalline silicon cells. In particular, flexible perovskite solar cells (f-PSCs) have broad application prospects in photovoltaic building (BIPV), distributed power generation, portable device charging and other fields, and become a research hotspot in the photovoltaic field.

Perovskite/silicon solar cell technology has advanced rapidly, from 13.7% to 33.2% efficiency today, thanks to its wider solar spectrum absorption range and higher open-circuit voltage output. Therefore, perovskite/silicon solar cells are considered to be the most promising new photovoltaic technology to radically improve the efficiency of photovoltaic conversion and significantly reduce the cost of solar power generation. 

The team at the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, used a long-carbon chain anionic surfactant additive. It was found that the additive can improve the growth kinetics of perovskite crystal by surface self-separation and micellar, and construct a colloidal scaffold at the grain boundary of perovskite to eliminate residual stress. It is one of the most stable devices reported so far under similar conditions to reduce defects, inhibit ion migration and improve energy level structure in perovskite active layer. This work promotes the development of strain engineering of perovskite-based solar cells with high efficiency and stability, and provides a reference for future application and deployment.