Understanding Degradation in Metal Halide Perovskite Solar Cells and Modules

Halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have been the focus of much research in recent years due to their extremely high photoconversion efficiencies and their ability to be synthesized by solution processing.  These materials crystallize in the perovskite, AMX3 crystal structure where A is a monovalent cation (e.g. methyl ammonium, MA, formamidinium, FA, and/or Cs), M is the metal cation and X is the halide anion. While great strides have been made to optimize the device performance of PSCs, there remain open questions as to the long-term field performance of these materials. While constant improvement in lab scale performance stability is being demonstrated a fundamental understanding of degradation mechanisms can still provide key insight into performance improvements. In addition, to fundamental lab scale studies field performance will be required to de-risk this technology for commercialization. In this talk, I will cover examples of both lab scale and field studies to improve our understanding of PSCs degradation mechanisms. First, I will discuss an application of X-ray scattering methods to probe the nanoscale heterogeneity of PSC absorber layers and couple these results to device level stability studies to understand the role heterogeneity plays in device performance. Finally, I will present a brief overview of an initial field demonstration of PSC modules as part of the Perovskite PV Accelerator for Commercializing Technologies, PACT, program. Together this work aims to improve our confidence in real world PSC module performance.

Speakers

Laura Schelhas

NREL