Intermediate-Phase Engineering via Dimethylammonium Cation Additive for Stable Perovskite Solar Cells

David McMeekin, Philippe Holzhey, Sebastian Furer, Steven Harvey, Laura Schelhas, James Ball, Suhas Mahesh, Seongrok Seo, Nicholas Hawkins, Jianfeng Lu, Michael Johnston, Joseph Berry, Udo Bach, Henry Snaith

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

119 Scopus Citations

Abstract

Achieving the long-term stability of perovskite solar cells is arguably the most important challenge required to enable widespread commercialization. Understanding the perovskite crystallization process and its direct impact on device stability is critical to achieving this goal. The commonly employed dimethyl-formamide/dimethyl-sulfoxide solvent preparation method results in a poor crystal quality and microstructure of the polycrystalline perovskite films. In this work, we introduce a high-temperature dimethyl-sulfoxide-free processing method that utilizes dimethylammonium chloride as an additive to control the perovskite intermediate precursor phases. By controlling the crystallization sequence, we tune the grain size, texturing, orientation (corner-up versus face-up) and crystallinity of the formamidinium (FA)/caesium (FA)yCs1–yPb(IxBr1–x)3 perovskite system. A population of encapsulated devices showed improved operational stability, with a median T80 lifetime (the time over which the device power conversion efficiency decreases to 80% of its initial value) for the steady-state power conversion efficiency of 1,190 hours, and a champion device showed a T80 of 1,410 hours, under simulated sunlight at 65 °C in air, under open-circuit conditions. This work highlights the importance of material quality in achieving the long-term operational stability of perovskite optoelectronic devices.

Original languageAmerican English
Pages (from-to)73-83
Number of pages11
JournalNature Materials
Volume22
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.

NREL Publication Number

  • NREL/JA-5K00-83873

Keywords

  • electronic devices
  • perovskite
  • photovoltaics
  • PV
  • solar
  • solar cells

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