Themed collection Physical chemistry of hybrid perovskite solar cells

Hybrid perovskite solar cells were first reported in 2009 by Miyasaka and co-workers (J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2009, 131, 6050) and sparked an exciting change in photovoltaics research, a field that has been growing rapidly ever since.

This review provides a comprehensive overview of the recent strategies aimed at enhancing the long-term stability of perovskite materials and perovskite solar cells (PSCs). It also extensively discusses the stability problem of perovskite materials and PSCs from perspectives of experimental tests and theoretical calculations.

ZnO/TiO₂ NR array is a novelty candidate as an electron collector for hole-conductor-free perovskite solar cells with carbon counter electrodes.

meta-Substitution is more beneficial to reduce HOMO levels compared with ortho- and para-substitution, while the hole mobility can be improved by ortho-substitution.

Raman and THz spectra of CH₃NH₃PbX₃ interpreted with a catalogue of computed vibrations and their influence on heat and electrical transport.

High aspect-ratio TiO₂ nanostructures directly assembled with pulsed laser deposition could improve interfacial contact for superior perovskite photovoltaic cells.

The electronic properties of the MAPbX₃ halide perovskites are investigated by DFT and GW methods, revealing the trends in band structure and optical properties along the X = I, Br and Cl series.

Perovskite solar cells were fabricated using the mixed organic cation of formamidinium and methylammonium. The mixed cation having the composition MA_0.6FA_0.4PbI₃ shows almost negligible I–V hysteresis and better photostability than pure MAPbI₃ and FAPbI₃.

For the organic–inorganic hybrid perovskites, the longer Pb–halide bond distance and the smaller band gap are the key factors to determine the shallow level energy formation of the intrinsic defects.

We report on ²⁰⁷Pb, ⁷⁹Br, ¹⁴N, ¹H, ¹³C and ²H NMR experiments for studying the local order and dynamics in hybrid perovskite lattices.

We herein present the results of a series of calculations performed on some representative cluster models of hybrid organic–inorganic halide perovskites, (MA)_jPb_kX_l (l = 2j + k; MA = methylammonium, ⁺CH₃NH₃; X = halide).

An interfacial buffer layer made of Al₂O₃ and sym-HTPcH facilitates perovskite solar cells with an average PCE value of 12.3%.

Strong moisture-blocking effect by CH₃NH₃PbI₃ perovskite-porous carbon layer has been found.

Rotational dynamics of formamidinium in FAPbI₃ and mixed displacive/order–disorder instabilities investigated by MD simulations and group theory.

The one-sentence summary that highlights the novelty of our work is, “morphology-kinetics studies on substrate/film-treated perovskite samples reveal that the highly effective toluene-wash processes surprisingly increase trap density in CH₃NH₃PbI₃ films”.

The fluence dependent charge carrier relaxation dynamics in a FAPbI₃ polycrystalline thin film were measured using femtosecond transient absorption and terahertz spectroscopies.