The photochemical stability of encapsulated films of mixed halide perovskites with a range of MAPb(I Br ) (MA=methylammonium) compositions (solid solutions) was investigated under accelerated stressing using concentrated sunlight. The relevance of accelerated testing to standard operational conditions of solar cells was confirmed by comparison to degradation experiments under outdoor sunlight exposure. We found that MAPbBr films exhibited no degradation, while MAPbI and mixed halide MAPb(I Br ) films decomposed yielding crystallization of inorganic PbI accompanied by degradation of the perovskite solar light absorption, with faster absorption degradation in mixed halide films. The crystal coherence length was found to correlate with the stability of the films. We postulate that the introduction of Br into the mixed halide solid solution stressed its structure and induced more structural defects and/or grain boundaries compared to pure halide perovskites, which might be responsible for the accelerated degradation. Hence, the cause for accelerated degradation may be the increased defect density rather than the chemical composition of the perovskite materials.

Organic solar cells incorporating non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs) have reached remarkable power conversion efficiencies of over 18%. Unlike fullerene derivatives, NFAs tend to crystallize from solutions, resulting in bulk heterojunctions that include a crystalline acceptor phase. This must be considered in any morphology-function models. Here, it is confirmed that high-performing solution-processed indacenodithienothiophene-based NFAs, i.e., ITIC and its derivatives ITIC-M, ITIC-2F, and ITIC-Th, exhibit at least two crystalline forms. In addition to highly ordered polymorphs that form at high temperatures, NFAs arrange into a low-temperature metastable phase that is readily promoted via solution processing and leads to the highest device efficiencies. Intriguingly, the low-temperature forms seem to feature a continuous network that favors charge transport despite of a poorly order along the π-π stacking direction. As the optical absorption of the structurally more disordered low-temperature phase can surpass that of the more ordered polymorphs while displaying comparable-or even higher-charge transport properties, it is argued that such a packing structure is an important feature for reaching highest device efficiencies, thus, providing guidelines for future materials design and crystal engineering activities.

ITIC photostability is markedly dependent on the specific polymorph phase and end-group decoration. Fluorination grants stronger chemical stability upon degradation.

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