Major Impediment to Highly Efficient, Stable and Low-Cost Perovskite Solar Cells

Abstract

Organic–inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have made immense progress in recent years, owing to outstanding optoelectronic properties of perovskite materials, such as high extinction coefficient, carrier mobility, and low exciton binding energy. Since the first appearance in 2009, the efficiency of PSCs has reached 23.3%. This has made them the most promising rival to silicon-based solar cells. However, there are still several issues to resolve to promote PSCs’ outdoor applications. In this review, three crucial aspects of PSCs, including high efficiency, environmental stability, and low-cost of PSCs, are described in detail. Recent in-depth studies on different aspects are also discussed for better understanding of these issues and possible solutions.

Direct Imaging of Current‐Induced Transformation of a Perovskite/Electrode Interface

“…The problem of a noble metal top electrode is widely discussed currently in the literature on the perovskite‐based devices, especially in mesoscopic solar cells without buffer underlayers . One of the important issues here appears to be downward (vertical) diffusion of metal atoms into the bulk of a photoabsorber layer, which leads to instability and loss in the devices performance.…”

“…Preparation of Samples : The FAPbI 3 films were obtained by the vacuum codeposition technique according to Refs . with lead(II) iodide PbI 2 and FAI as precursors.…”

“…As shown recently, solar cells based on the formamidinium‐lead iodide (FAPbI 3 ) perovskite are superior in their photovoltaic characteristics to the cells with the conventional perovskite photoabsorber bearing a methylammonium ion inside the inorganic cage, MAPbI 3 . Although the majority of the FAPbI 3 films are introduced in the solar cells via the solution deposition methods, there also appear reports on successful fabrication of FAPbI 3 by the thermal vacuum evaporation .…”

“…In addition to the external factors that force a perovskite to degrade with a flow of electrical current without illumination, such as temperature or humidity, there are intrinsic fundamental processes. These can generally be ascribed to the atomic mixing/ion migration, and phase segregation …”

Analytical framework for the assessment and modelling of multi-junction solar cells in the outdoors

“…22. This particular choice is motivated by both the lack of underlying data available [78], and the many ongoing challenges related to the outdoor deployment of perovskite modules [79]. For example, Dupre et al [80] showed that a "thermal benefit" strongly depends on the global heat transfer mechanisms between the module and its (outdoor) surrounding.…”