Migration of cations induces reversible performance losses over day/night cycling in perovskite solar cells
Summary (2 min read)
Introduction
- Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have the potential to become a new generation of photovoltaics with the shortest energy payback time and lowest CO2 emission factor among existing technologies.
- This impressive improvement of the PCE has not been matched by an equal advancement in the knowledge of the performance losses under standard working conditions (illumination and load).
- 10, 11 Conversely, prolonged exposure to solar cell operational temperatures (above 50 °C) can cause severe degradation, which cannot be avoided by sealing the PSCs.
- 25-27 Several studies indicated that, regardless of particular architecture and constituents within the PSCs, X defects migrate and reversibly accumulate within the perovskite lattice in narrow Debye layers at the interfaces with the charge selective contacts.
- The authors work paves the way towards developing specific testing protocols, definition of new figures of merits and calculation of energy payback time that are needed to characterize PSCs.
Results and discussion
- To study the impact of the long-term ion migration on device performance and stability, the authors prepared state-of-the-art PSCs, using the mixed halide-cation perovskite composition CH3NH3/CH(NH2)2 Pb Br/I and the antisolvent deposition method on mesoporous TiO2 substrates,56 which enabled the realization of power conversion efficiencies above 20% (see device characterization in SI).
- To isolate regime I from the subsequent degradation (regime II), the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) for a device C was stopped after only 5 hours and repeated periodically after leaving the device resting in dark for a varying number of hours (Figure 1b).
- The authors found that the experimental trend in Figure 3a was best reproduced by the model that accounts for halide vacancy migration, but does not directly account for the slowly moving cation vacancies even on the 300s settling timescale.
- To provide evidence that cation vacancies are effectively mobile the authors measured the current transient dynamics at short circuit after preconditioning the device at either forward (0.85 V) or reverse (-0.3 V) bias (Figure 4a).
- The authors have also proven, that both halide and cation vacancies are mobile (albeit the latter are considerably slower than the former) and their distribution in the perovskite layer can considerably affect charge extraction and, in consequence, PCE of the device.
Conclusions
- The authors investigated the impact of the ionic defect migration on the performance and stability of state-of-the-art perovskite solar cells (PSCs).
- The authors provide direct evidence of halide migration within the perovskite as a result of applied electric field.
- The authors show, that the accumulation of cation vacancies at the electron contact induces reversible performance losses that abate the initial efficiency of state-of-the-art PSCs by about 10-15% over several hours of operation at the maximum power point.
- The initial efficiency is fully recovered when leaving the device in dark for a comparable amount of time.
- The authors work provides indications for the much needed new testing protocols and figures of merits specifically designed for PSCs.
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Frequently Asked Questions (19)
Q2. What is the reason for the slow decay in efficiency observed in PSCs?
The strong asymmetry in the activation energy for migration of halide and cation vacancies implies that stabilization times on the order of hours (not minutes as widely believed) are required for PSCs to reach a true steady-state working conditions.
Q3. What is the effect of ion migration on the built-in electric field?
28-34 Depending on voltage and light bias conditioning, accumulation of ions (and their vacancies) partially screens the built-in electric field and possibly creates interfacial electronic trap states, which reduce the charge extraction efficiency.
Q4. What is the effect of the slow decay of the cation vacancies on the device?
(c) for timescales longer than 103 s (i.e. hours), cation vacancies form an additional Debye layer at the interface with the electron selective contact, which in turn inhibits charge extraction from the device.
Q5. What is the alarming source of degradation in perovskite solar cells?
Ionic defects and their migration in the perovskite crystal lattice are one of the most alarming sources of degradation, which can potentially prevent the commercialization of perovskite solar cells (PSCs).
Q6. What is the potential of perovskite solar cells?
Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have the potential to become a new generation of photovoltaics with the shortest energy payback time and lowest CO2 emission factor among existing technologies.
Q7. What is the effect of the slow cation migration on the efficiency of a PSC?
When PSCs are exposed to real operating conditions, the slow cation migration is responsible for the reversible losses in the device on the timescale of hours.
Q8. What is the main reason for the ionic defects in the perovskite la?
13-18 Nonetheless, temperature activated formation and migration of ionic defects within the organic-inorganic ABX3 perovskite lattice remains a potential source of instability for perovskite photovoltaics.
Q9. What causes rapid performance degradation in perovskite solar cells?
So far, discussion around PSCs stability has mainly focused on oxygen,8 water5 and UV light exposure9 as causes of rapid performance degradation in PSCs.
Q10. How long did the authors wait for the current to stabilize?
Under each biasing condition, the authors waited for the current to stabilize for about 20 minutes at 20 °C, before cooling the device to –20 °C and switching it abruptly to short circuit condition.
Q11. What is the reason why identically prepared devices age differently?
Since the long-term degradation is a convolution of several mechanisms that may abruptly impact the performance,57 it is not surprising that identically prepared devices age differently.
Q12. How do the authors determine the efficiency of state-of-the-art PSCs?
The authors show, that the accumulation of cation vacancies at the electron contact induces reversible performance losses that abate the initial efficiency of state-of-the-art PSCs by about 10-15% over several hours of operation at the maximum power point.
Q13. How was the device kept under the same conditions?
During the experiment, the devices were kept under 1 sun-equivalent white LED illumination at MPP (around 0.85 V) and under N2 atmosphere.
Q14. What are the extrinsic factors associated with the degradation of organic materials?
These extrinsic factors have been associated with a number of degradation mechanisms that can be retarded using the sealing technologies industrialised for organic electronics, which provide oxygen and humidity barriers and protection against UV light.
Q15. What is the use of time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry?
The authors made use of time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) to measure the effective elemental changes within the layers.
Q16. What is the effect of cation vacancies on the efficiency of a PSC?
The authors have also proven, that both halide and cation vacancies are mobile (albeit the latter are considerably slower than the former) and their distribution in the perovskite layer can considerably affect charge extraction and, in consequence, PCE of the device.
Q17. What is the effect of the long-term ion migration on device performance and stability?
To study the impact of the long-term ion migration on device performance and stability, the authors prepared state-of-the-art PSCs, using the mixed halide-cation perovskite composition CH3NH3/CH(NH2)2 Pb Br/I and the antisolvent deposition method on mesoporous TiO2 substrates,56 which enabled the realization of power conversion efficiencies above 20% (see device characterization in SI).
Q18. What are the intrinsic losses associated with the degradation of organic materials and metal contacts?
so called intrinsic losses, have been mostly associated with the degradation of organic materials and metal contacts within PSCs.3, 12, 13 Indeed, significant progress has been made by replacing the organic components with their inorganic counterparts and passivating the interfaces between the different layers composing the device.
Q19. What is the reason why the authors could not conclude if cations are mobile?
again the authors could not conclude if cations are mobile, largely due to the fact that the technique is not suited for tracing lightweight elements constituting CH3NH3+ ions (the fact that the devices had to be coated with C prior to the analysis, made the analysis even more challenging).