Enhancing Moisture and Water Resistance in Perovskite Solar Cells by Encapsulation with Ultrathin Plasma Polymers

Abstract

A compromise between high power conversion efficiency and long-term stability of hybrid organic-inorganic metal halide perovskite solar cells is necessary for their outdoor photovoltaic application and commercialization. Herein, a method to improve the stability of perovskite solar cells under water and moisture exposure consisting of the encapsulation of the cell with an ultrathin plasma polymer is reported. The deposition of the polymer is carried out at room temperature by the remote plasma vacuum deposition of adamantane powder. This encapsulation method does not affect the photovoltaic performance of the tested devices and is virtually compatible with any device configuration independent of the chemical composition. After 30 days under ambient conditions with a relative humidity (RH) in the range of 35-60%, the absorbance of encapsulated perovskite films remains practically unaltered. The deterioration in the photovoltaic performance of the corresponding encapsulated devices also becomes significantly delayed with respect to devices without encapsulation when vented continuously with very humid air (RH > 85%). More impressively, when encapsulated solar devices were immersed in liquid water, the photovoltaic performance was not affected at least within the first 60 s. In fact, it has been possible to measure the power conversion efficiency of encapsulated devices under operation in water. The proposed method opens up a new promising strategy to develop stable photovoltaic and photocatalytic perovskite devices.

Application of Perovskite‐Structured Materials in Field‐Effect Transistors

“…[144] Multiple materials have been used for packaging hybrid perovskite devices, such as polymer, [112,161] adamantane nanocomposite, [162] organosilicate, [163] boron nitride, [111] etc. It is one of the most common methods to improve the stability of the hybrid perovskite-based devices.…”

Enhanced Stability of Perovskite Solar Cells Incorporating Dopant‐Free Crystalline Spiro‐OMeTAD Layers by Vacuum Sublimation

“…This can be clearly seen in the evolution of the photovoltaic parameters, especially in the PCE ( Figure S9h, Supporting Information). It is worth to note that the methodology proposed is compatible with the use of encapsulating layers either by vacuum [44] or solution methods, [45] that are foreseen to further enhance the stability of devices. Moreover, the annealing at 200 °C completely degrades the full solution-processed cells, while the vacuum sublimated is still working (although with a very low PCE of 0.7% and 2.3% for Spiro-OMeTAD synthesized at RT and 110 °C, correspondently).…”

Stability Challenges for Perovskite Solar Cells

“…reported a new type of 3‐D hydrophobic ammonium molecule (POSS‐NH 2 ) incorporated on the perovskite surface to effectively improve the water resistance of the corresponding device . As depicted in Figure a and b, an enhanced surface hydrophobicity was observed to result in the superior moisture stability of solar cells under a relative humidity of 50∼80% for more than 600 h. Idigoras and colleagues investigated an easy encapsulation method for perovskite solar devices . They demonstrated a huge enhancement in water‐resistance by using a polymer thin film (ADA).…”