Lead halide perovskite solar cells have recently attracted tremendous attention because of their excellent photovoltaic efficiencies. However, the poor stability of both the perovskite material and the charge transport layers has so far prevented the fabrication of devices that can withstand sustained operation under normal conditions. Here, we report a solution-processed lead halide perovskite solar cell that has p-type NiO(x) and n-type ZnO nanoparticles as hole and electron transport layers, respectively, and shows improved stability against water and oxygen degradation when compared with devices with organic charge transport layers. Our cells have a p-i-n structure (glass/indium tin oxide/NiO(x)/perovskite/ZnO/Al), in which the ZnO layer isolates the perovskite and Al layers, thus preventing degradation. After 60 days storage in air at room temperature, our all-metal-oxide devices retain about 90% of their original efficiency, unlike control devices made with organic transport layers, which undergo a complete degradation after just 5 days. The initial power conversion efficiency of our devices is 14.6 ± 1.5%, with an uncertified maximum value of 16.1%.

Wide applications of personal consumer electronics have triggered tremendous need for portable power sources featuring light-weight and mechanical flexibility. Perovskite solar cells offer a compelling combination of low-cost and high device performance. Here we demonstrate high-performance planar heterojunction perovskite solar cells constructed on highly flexible and ultrathin silver-mesh/conducting polymer substrates. The device performance is comparable to that of their counterparts on rigid glass/indium tin oxide substrates, reaching a power conversion efficiency of 14.0%, while the specific power (the ratio of power to device weight) reaches 1.96 kW kg−1, given the fact that the device is constructed on a 57-μm-thick polyethylene terephthalate based substrate. The flexible device also demonstrates excellent robustness against mechanical deformation, retaining >95% of its original efficiency after 5,000 times fully bending. Our results confirmed that perovskite thin films are fully compatible with our flexible substrates, and are thus promising for future applications in flexible and bendable solar cells.

Hybrid perovskites have shown astonishing power conversion efficiencies owed to their remarkable absorber characteristics including long carrier lifetimes, and a relatively substantial defect tolerance for solution-processed polycrystalline films. However, nonradiative charge carrier recombination at grain boundaries limits open circuit voltages and consequent performance improvements of perovskite solar cells. Here we address such recombination pathways and demonstrate a passivation effect through guanidinium-based additives to achieve extraordinarily enhanced carrier lifetimes and higher obtainable open circuit voltages. Time-resolved photoluminescence measurements yield carrier lifetimes in guanidinium-based films an order of magnitude greater than pure-methylammonium counterparts, giving rise to higher device open circuit voltages and power conversion efficiencies exceeding 17%. A reduction in defect activation energy of over 30% calculated via admittance spectroscopy and confocal fluorescence intensity mapping indicates successful passivation of recombination/trap centers at grain boundaries. We speculate that guanidinium ions serve to suppress formation of iodide vacancies and passivate under-coordinated iodine species at grain boundaries and within the bulk through their hydrogen bonding capability. These results present a simple method for suppressing nonradiative carrier loss in hybrid perovskites to further improve performances toward highly efficient solar cells.

When translating photovoltaic technology from laboratory to commercial products, low cost, high power conversion efficiency, and high stability (long lifetime) are the three key metrics to consider in addition to other factors, such as low toxicity, low energy payback time, etc. As one of the most promising photovoltaic materials with high efficiency, today organic–inorganic metal halide perovskites draw tremendous attention from fundamental research, but their practical relevance still remains unclear owing to the notorious short device operation time. In this comment, we discuss the stability issue of perovskite photovoltaics and call for standardized protocols for device characterizations that could possibly match the silicon industrial standards.

is drinking coffee.'' The perfect temperature to serve coffee is 85 C. The authors here introduced caffeine, which is the active material of coffee, into the active materials of the perovskite solar cells to enhance their performance and thermal stability under 85 C. A champion-stabilized efficiency of 19.8% with 1,300 h thermal stability at 85 C in nitrogen was achieved. This simple, costeffective, and generalized strategy increases the commercial prospects of perovskite solar cells.

In organic solar cells (OSCs), cathode interfacial materials are generally designed with highly polar groups to increase the capability of lowering the work function of cathode. However, the strong polar group could result in a high surface energy and poor physical contact at the active layer surface, posing a challenge for interlayer engineering to address the trade-off between device stability and efficiency. Herein, we report a hydrogen-bonding interfacial material, aliphatic amine-functionalized perylene-diimide (PDINN), which simultaneously down-shifts the work function of the air stable cathodes (silver and copper), and maintains good interfacial contact with the active layer. The OSCs based on PDINN engineered silvercathode demonstrate a high power conversion efficiency of 17.23% (certified value 16.77% by NREL) and high stability. Our results indicate that PDINN is an effective cathode interfacial material and interlayer engineering via suitable intermolecular interactions is a feasible approach to improve device performance of OSCs.

Inorganic-organic hybrid perovskite solar cells research could be traced back to 2009, and initially showed 3.8% efficiency. After 6 years of efforts, the efficiency has been pushed to 20.1%. The pace of development was much faster than that of any type of solar cell technology. In addition to high efficiency, the device fabrication is a low-cost solution process. Due to these advantages, a large number of scientists have been immersed into this promising area. In the past 6 years, much of the research on perovskite solar cells has been focused on planar and mesoporous device structures employing an n-type TiO2 layer as the bottom electron transport layer. These architectures have achieved champion device efficiencies. However, they still possess unwanted features. Mesoporous structures require a high temperature (>450 °C) sintering process for the TiO2 scaffold, which will increase the cost and also not be compatible with flexible substrates. While the planar structures based on TiO2 (regular structure) usually suffer from a large degree of J-V hysteresis. Recently, another emerging structure, referred to as an "inverted" planar device structure (i.e., p-i-n), uses p-type and n-type materials as bottom and top charge transport layers, respectively. This structure derived from organic solar cells, and the charge transport layers used in organic photovoltaics were successfully transferred into perovskite solar cells. The p-i-n structure of perovskite solar cells has shown efficiencies as high as 18%, lower temperature processing, flexibility, and, furthermore, negligible J-V hysteresis effects. In this Account, we will provide a comprehensive comparison of the mesoporous and planar structures, and also the regular and inverted of planar structures. Later, we will focus the discussion on the development of the inverted planar structure of perovskite solar cells, including film growth, band alignment, stability, and hysteresis. In the film growth part, several methods for obtaining high quality perovskite films are reviewed. In the interface engineering parts, the effect of hole transport layer on subsequent perovskite film growth and their interface band alignment, and also the effect of electron transport layers on charge transport and interface contact will be discussed. As concerns stability, the role of charge transport layers especially the top electron transport layer in the devices stability will be concluded. In the hysteresis part, possible reasons for hysteresis free in inverted planar structure are provided. At the end of this Account, future development and possible solutions to the remaining challenges facing the commercialization of perovskite solar cells are discussed.

In perovskite based planar heterojunction solar cells, the interface between the TiO2 compact layer and the perovskite film is critical for high photovoltaic performance. The deep trap states on the TiO2 surface induce several challenging issues, such as charge recombination loss and poor stability etc. To solve the problems, we synthesized a triblock fullerene derivative (PCBB-2CN-2C8) via rational molecular design for interface engineering in the perovskite solar cells. Modifying the TiO2 surface with the compound significantly improves charge extraction from the perovskite layer. Together with its uplifted surface work function, open circuit voltage and fill factor are dramatically increased from 0.99 to 1.06 V, and from 72.2% to 79.1%, respectively, resulting in 20.7% improvement in power conversion efficiency for the best performing devices. Scrutinizing the electrical properties of this modified interfacial layer strongly suggests that PCBB-2CN-2C8 passivates the TiO2 surface and thus reduces charge recombination loss caused by the deep trap states of TiO2. The passivation effect is further proven by stability testing of the perovskite solar cells with shelf lifetime under ambient conditions improved by a factor of more than 4, from ∼40 h to ∼200 h, using PCBB-2CN-2C8 as the TiO2 modification layer. This work offers not only a promising material for cathode interface engineering, but also provides a viable approach to address the challenges of deep trap states on TiO2 surface in planar perovskite solar cells.