Issue 48, 2017

Insights into the increased degradation rate of CH3NH3PbI3 solar cells in combined water and O2 environments

Abstract

Halide perovskites offer low cost and high efficiency solar cell materials but serious issues related to air and moisture stability remain. In this study we show, using UV-vis, fluorescence and time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) techniques, that the degradation of methylammonium lead iodide solar cells is significantly accelerated when both air and moisture are present in comparison to when just air or moisture is present alone. Using ab initio computational techniques we identify the thermodynamic driving force for the enhanced reactivity and highlight the regions of the photoexcited material that are the most likely reaction centres. We suggest that water catalyses the reaction by stabilising the reactive superoxide species, enabling them to react with the methylammonium cation.

Graphical abstract: Insights into the increased degradation rate of CH3NH3PbI3 solar cells in combined water and O2 environments

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
03 avq 2017
Accepted
15 noy 2017
First published
29 noy 2017
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2017,5, 25469-25475

Insights into the increased degradation rate of CH3NH3PbI3 solar cells in combined water and O2 environments

N. Aristidou, C. Eames, M. S. Islam and S. A. Haque, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2017, 5, 25469 DOI: 10.1039/C7TA06841G

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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