Damp heat–stable perovskite solar cells with tailored-dimensionality 2D/3D heterojunctions

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 376; no. 6588; pp. 73 - 77
• Main Authors: Azmi, Randi, Ugur, Esma, Seitkhan, Akmaral, Aljamaan, Faisal, Subbiah, Anand S., Liu, Jiang, Harrison, George T., Nugraha, Mohamad I., Eswaran, Mathan K., Babics, Maxime, Chen, Yuan, Xu, Fuzong, Allen, Thomas G., Rehman, Atteq ur, Wang, Chien-Lung, Anthopoulos, Thomas D., Schwingenschlögl, Udo, De Bastiani, Michele, Aydin, Erkan, De Wolf, Stefaan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States The American Association for the Advancement of Science 01.04.2022
• Subjects: Energy conversion efficiency; Fabrication; Heterojunctions; Iodides; Ion migration; Perovskites; Photovoltaic cells; Relative humidity; Solar cells
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.abm5784

If perovskite solar cells (PSCs) with high power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) are to be commercialized, they must achieve long-term stability, which is usually assessed with accelerated degradation tests. One of the persistent obstacles for PSCs has been successfully passing the damp-heat test (85°C and 85% relative humidity), which is the standard for verifying the stability of commercial photovoltaic (PV) modules. We fabricated damp heat–stable PSCs by tailoring the dimensional fragments of two-dimensional perovskite layers formed at room temperature with oleylammonium iodide molecules; these layers passivate the perovskite surface at the electron-selective contact. The resulting inverted PSCs deliver a 24.3% PCE and retain >95% of their initial value after >1000 hours at damp-heat test conditions, thereby meeting one of the critical industrial stability standards for PV modules. Although inverted (p-i-n) perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have advantages in fabrication and scaling compared with n-i-p cells, their power conversion efficiencies (PCEs ) are usually lower. Azmi et al . show that by tailoring the number of octahedral inorganic sheets in two-dimensional perovskite (2DP) passivation layers for three-dimensional perovskite active layers, PCEs of more than 24% could be achieved (see the Perspective by Luther and Schelhas). The 2DP layers formed with oleylammonium iodide molecules at the electron-selective interface passivated trap states and suppressed ion migration. These PSCs retained more than 95% of their initial efficiency after 1000 hours of damp-heat testing (85°C and 85% relative humidity), which passes a key industrial stability standard. —PDS Tailored two-dimensional perovskite passivation layers enable efficient, damp-heat stable inverted perovskite solar cells.