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Systematic investigation of the impact of operation conditions on the degradation behaviour of perovskite solar cells

Nature Energy volume 3, pages 61–67 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

Perovskite solar cells have achieved power-conversion efficiency values approaching those of established photovoltaic technologies, making the reliable assessment of their operational stability the next essential step towards commercialization. Although studies increasingly often involve a form of stability characterization, they are conducted in non-standardized ways, which yields data that are effectively incomparable. Furthermore, stability assessment of a novel material system with its own peculiarities might require an adjustment of common standards. Here, we investigate the effects of different environmental factors and electrical load on the ageing behaviour of perovskite solar cells. On this basis, we comment on our perceived relevance of the different ways these are currently aged. We also demonstrate how the results of the experiments can be distorted and how to avoid the common pitfalls. We hope this work will initiate discussion on how to age perovskite solar cells and facilitate the development of consensus stability measurement protocols.

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Fig. 1: The effect of ultraviolet light on the stability of PSCs.
Fig. 2: The effect of atmosphere and light on ageing.
Fig. 3: The effect of temperature on ageing.
Fig. 4: The effect of load applied to the device on its stability.
Fig. 5: The dilemma of how to measure device PCE during ageing.
Fig. 6: The effect of light cycling on ageing.
Fig. 7: A typical result of keeping a device at MPP and N2.

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Acknowledgements

We thank B. Le Geyt, S. Sujito, C. Clement and A. Fattet for their help in building the ageing set-up used to collect the data presented here. We also thank T. Matsui, M. Yavari and M. Saliba for providing devices used in a pilot study. K.D. thanks the SNF for funding within the framework of the Umbrella project (grant agreement no. 407040–153952 and 407040–153990). E.A.A., W.T. and M.G. acknowledge King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) for financial support under a joint research project. W.T. thanks the Swiss National Science Foundation for funding through an Ambizione fellowship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Photonics and Interfaces, Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Konrad Domanski, Essa A. Alharbi, Michael Grätzel & Wolfgang Tress

  2. Laboratory of Photomolecular Science, Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Anders Hagfeldt & Wolfgang Tress

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  1. Konrad Domanski
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Contributions

W.T. and K.D. conceived the study, which was then supervised by W.T. K.D. performed the stability measurements and analysed the data. The devices were prepared by E.A.A. The stability measurement set-up was designed and developed by K.D., W.T. and A.H. K.D. and W.T. wrote the first draft of the manuscript. M.G. and A.H. contributed to fruitful discussions and supervision of the project. All authors contributed to the writing of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Konrad Domanski or Wolfgang Tress.

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Supplementary Tables 1 and 2, Supplementary Figures 1–8, Supplementary Notes 1 and 2, and Supplementary References

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Domanski, K., Alharbi, E.A., Hagfeldt, A. et al. Systematic investigation of the impact of operation conditions on the degradation behaviour of perovskite solar cells. Nat Energy 3, 61–67 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-017-0060-5

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