The photovoltaics of organic–inorganic lead halide perovskite materials have shown rapid improvements in solar cell performance, surpassing the top efficiency of semiconductor compounds such as CdTe and CIGS (copper indium gallium selenide) used in solar cells in just about a decade. Perovskite preparation via simple and inexpensive solution processes demonstrates the immense potential of this thin-film solar cell technology to become a low-cost alternative to the presently commercially available photovoltaic technologies. Significant developments in almost all aspects of perovskite solar cells and discoveries of some fascinating properties of such hybrid perovskites have been made recently. This Review describes the fundamentals, recent research progress, present status, and our views on future prospects of perovskite-based photovoltaics, with discussions focused on strategies to improve both intrinsic and extrinsic (environmental) stabilities of high-efficiency devices. Strategies and challenges regardi...

Halide Perovskite Photovoltaics: Background, Status, and Future Prospects

A Review of Perovskites Solar Cell Stability

In this article, the excellent properties of state-of-the-art Cd-free Cu(In,Ga)(Se,S)2 (CIGSSe) solar cells with Zn(O,S,OH) x /Zn0.8Mg0.2O double buffer layers, deposited by a combination of chemical bath deposition and atomic layer deposition techniques, are presented. By the replacement of conventional CdS buffer layers with this double buffer layer, the open-circuit voltage ( V oc) deficit of the devices could be significantly reduced, and V oc increased by approximately 15 mV. In addition, the fill factor and short-circuit current were also improved, increasing the device efficiency by approximately 0.5 absolute percent compared with devices with CdS buffers. The Cd-free double buffer layer improved the device efficiency regardless of the bandgap of the CIGSSe absorber. The minority carrier lifetime ( τ ) measured via time-resolved photoluminescence became longer, indicating that carrier recombination is mitigated using the double buffer layer. Based on the device parameters extracted by fitting the Suns– V oc characteristics to the double-diode model, the longer τ could be attributed to the decreased recombination rate in the space-charge region, rather than in the bulk and at the interface. The best performing cell was evaluated by a reliable third party, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology; this cell achieved a new world record efficiency of 23.35% for 1-cm2-sized thin-film polycrystalline solar cells. The device parameters of this cell are also discussed in this article.

Cd-Free Cu(In,Ga)(Se,S) 2 Thin-Film Solar Cell With Record Efficiency of 23.35%

Organic solar cells (OSCs) present some advantages, such as simple preparation, light weight, low cost and large-area flexible fabrication, and have attracted much attention in recent years. Although the power conversion efficiencies have exceeded 10%, the inferior device stability still remains a great challenge. In this review, we summarize the factors limiting the stability of OSCs, such as metastable morphology, diffusion of electrodes and buffer layers, oxygen and water, irradiation, heating and mechanical stress, and survey recent progress in strategies to increase the stability of OSCs, such as material design, device engineering of active layers, employing inverted geometry, optimizing buffer layers, using stable electrodes and encapsulation. Some research areas of device stability that may deserve further attention are also discussed to help readers understand the challenges and opportunities in achieving high efficiency and high stability of OSCs towards future industrial manufacture.

Stability of organic solar cells: challenges and strategies

Inorganic halide perovskites (IHPs) have recently attracted huge attention in the field of optoelectronics. IHPs are generally expected to exhibit superior chemical stability over the prevailing hybrid organic–inorganic perovskites that are widely used in optoelectronic devices such as solar cells and light-emitting devices. This is primarily owing to the elimination of weakly-bonded organic components in the IHP crystal structure. Nevertheless, many recent studies have revealed that IHPs still suffer significant issues in chemical instability, and thus, a lot of effort has been made towards the stabilization of IHPs for high-performance devices. In this context, a great deal of interest in the chemistry and perovskite community has been emerging to understand the chemical (in)stability of IHPs and develop engineering strategies for making more robust perovskite devices. This review will summarize the past research progress in this direction, give insights into the IHP (in)stability, and provide perspectives for the future effort in making stable IHP materials and devices.

Chemical stability and instability of inorganic halide perovskites

High‐Performance Planar Perovskite Solar Cells Using Low Temperature, Solution–Combustion‐Based Nickel Oxide Hole Transporting Layer with Efficiency Exceeding 20%

In this work, a simple and efficient method for the extraction of all the parameters of a solar cell from a single current-voltage (I-V) curve under the constant illumination level is proposed. With the help of the Lambert W function, the explicit analytic expression for I is obtained. By reducing the number of the parameters, the expression for I only depends on the ideality factor n, the series resistance Rs, and the shunt resistance Rsh. This analytic expression is directly used to fit the experimental data and extract the device parameters. This simple solar cell parameter extraction method can be directly applied for all kinds of solar cells whose I-V characteristics follow the single-diode model. The parameters of various solar devices including silicon solar cells, silicon solar modules, dye-sensitized solar cells, and organic solar cells with standalone, tandem, and multi-junction structures have been successfully extracted by using our proposed method.

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A simple and efficient solar cell parameter extraction method from a single current-voltage curve

Intermolecular Exchange Boosts Efficiency of Air-Stable, Carbon-Based All-Inorganic Planar CsPbIBr2 Perovskite Solar Cells to Over 9%

Recent research shows that the interface state in perovskite solar cells is the main factor which affects the stability and performance of the device, and interface engineering including strain engineering is an effective method to solve this issue. In this work, a CsBr buffer layer is inserted between NiO x hole transport layer and perovskite layer to relieve the lattice mismatch induced interface stress and induce more ordered crystal growth. The experimental and theoretical results show that the addition of the CsBr buffer layer optimizes the interface between the perovskite absorber layer and the NiO x hole transport layer, reduces interface defects and traps, and enhances the hole extraction/transfer. The experimental results show that the power conversion efficiency of optimal device reaches up to 19.7% which is significantly higher than the efficiency of the device without the CsBr buffer layer. Meanwhile, the device stability is also improved. This work provides a deep understanding of the NiO x /perovskite interface and provides a new strategy for interface optimization.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/advs.201903044

NiO/Perovskite Heterojunction Contact Engineering for Highly Efficient and Stable Perovskite Solar Cells

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have attracted much attention due to their impressive photovoltaic performance and low fabrication cost. The perovskite layer plays a critical role in light-to-electricity conversion. Here we study the effects of alkali metal ion dopants on the growth, structure and properties of perovskite films and the photovoltaic performance of PSCs. At a low doping level, the alkali metal ions can significantly affect the formation and properties of the perovskite films. They can enhance the short-circuit current density (Jsc) and power conversion efficiency (PCE) significantly. The Jsc increases significantly from 19.2 mA cm−2 to 21.0 mA cm−2 and 20.3 mA cm−2 for the PSCs with a methylammonium lead triode layer doped with 0.5 mol% K+ and 0.25 mol% Na+, respectively, and the fill factor (FF) increases from 0.74 to 0.79 for the devices with both doping ions. Correspondingly, the PCE increases from 13.7% to 15.3% and 14.6% for the PSCs, respectively. The efficiency improvement by K+ or Na+ doping is attributed to their effect in increasing the crystallinity and crystallite size of the perovskite films.

Zhenhua Lin

Papers

High‐Performance Planar Perovskite Solar Cells Using Low Temperature, Solution–Combustion‐Based Nickel Oxide Hole Transporting Layer with Efficiency Exceeding 20%

A simple and efficient solar cell parameter extraction method from a single current-voltage curve

Intermolecular Exchange Boosts Efficiency of Air-Stable, Carbon-Based All-Inorganic Planar CsPbIBr2 Perovskite Solar Cells to Over 9%

NiO/Perovskite Heterojunction Contact Engineering for Highly Efficient and Stable Perovskite Solar Cells

Enhancing the photovoltaic performance of planar heterojunction perovskite solar cells by doping the perovskite layer with alkali metal ions