Perovskite Solar Cells: From the Atomic Level to Film Quality and Device Performance

Abstract

Organic-inorganic perovskites have made tremendous progress in recent years due to exceptional material properties such as high panchromatic absorption, charge carrier diffusion lengths, and a sharp optical band edge. The combination of high-quality semiconductor performance with low-cost deposition techniques seems to be a match made in heaven, creating great excitement far beyond academic ivory towers. This is particularly true for perovskite solar cells (PSCs) that have shown unprecedented gains in efficiency and stability over a time span of just five years. Now there are serious efforts for commercialization with the hope that PSCs can make a major impact in generating inexpensive, sustainable solar electricity. In this Review, we will focus on perovskite material properties as well as on devices from the atomic to the thin film level to highlight the remaining challenges and to anticipate the future developments of PSCs.

The Role of Diammonium Cation on the Structural and Optoelectronic Properties in 3D Cesium–Formamidinium Mixed‐Cation Perovskite Solar Cells

“…Further increasing the PDA content ( x > 0.03), the perovskite crystal continues to decrease to ≈100 nm, and the grain boundary is difficult to be identified. As highlighted by Saliba et al, grain size of a few hundred nanometer is large enough to guarantee high‐performance devices, whereas grain size of sub‐100 nm is detrimental to the device performance . In addition, Ke et al recently reported that a 2D D–J perovskite ( n = 4) with grain size of ≈100 nm yields a small J sc of 13.69 mA cm −2 but a decent FF of 81.04%, which is similar to our case.…”

First evidence of macroscale single crystal ion exchange found in lead halide perovskites

“…Perovskite materials have attracted a great extent of research due to their exponentially increasing use in the field of solar cells . Ion mobility inside the perovskite was attributed as the cause for the large measured, direction switchable, photocurrents in symmetric electrodes of heterojunction perovskite solar cells (PSCs) .…”

Enhanced Lifetime and Photostability with Low‐Temperature Mesoporous ZnTiO3/Compact SnO2Electrodes in Perovskite Solar Cells

“…Today, the efficiency of PSCs has grown from 3.8 % in single‐junction solar cells in 2008 to more than 25 %, and the tandem solar cells has even reached 28 % . Up to now, the key issues of PSC have become its stability, performance and large‐scale production . This requires optimization of the film morphology, interface, device structure and the fabrication process .…”