ABSTRACT

Perovskite solar cells as an emerging renewable energy technology are expected to play an important role in the transition to a sustainable future. However, lead toxicity remains a major flaw hindering their large-scale implementation and compromising their sustainability. Here we show that this can be addressed by embedding a cross-linking supramolecular complex composed of 2-hydroxypropyl beta-cyclodextrin and 1,2,3,4-butane tetracarboxylic acid. The built-in complex can largely inhibit lead leakage from severely damaged perovskite solar cells, which retain 97% of the initial efficiency after 522 h dynamic water scouring, with only less than 14 ppb lead contamination in water.