Perovskite solar cells have reached promising power conversion efficiency but their long-term stability is still an open question. Several strategies to improve device stability have been reported. However, results are scattered across the literature and lack statistics and consistency in device processing and stability measurement. This makes it difficult to assess and compare the different approaches taken to improve stability. Recently, researchers in the field have set up the Perovskite Database Project which collects data from over 42,000 perovskite solar cells from peer-reviewed papers. Now, Jingshan Luo and colleagues from Nankai University present a statistical analysis of strategies to improve stability using data from 7,000 devices present in the database.
To compare data from devices tested under different conditions, the researchers develop a single indicator that converts the time taken by a device to degrade under various temperatures, humidity and light intensity to the equivalent time to reach the same degradation level under reference conditions. The latter can be benchmarked against other lifetimes to compare stability strategies. For instance, Luo and team confirm a statistically significant greater stability of inorganic perovskite compositions than those containing organic cations. However, they note that more accurate models are needed to predict complex degradation processes. A deeper understanding of the degradation mechanisms and their quantitative description will be key to more reliable, as well as insightful, statistical analysis.
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