Issue 8, 2020

Good or evil: what is the role of water in crystallization of organometal halide perovskites?

Abstract

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have the potential to become one of the most cost-efficient photovoltaic devices. However, current fabrication methods of PSCs still require strict environment control and ultrahigh purity chemicals, which could prevent their large-scale commercialization. To tackle this challenge, the role of water is the first to be thoroughly understood in a perovskite formation process. Until now, there is still controversy about whether water is harmful or beneficial for perovskite formation, not to mention exactly what role water plays therein. In this Focus article, we review recent studies on water involved chemical reactions, solvent interaction, intermediates, and crystal growth in the perovskite film formation process, in order to bring out a full picture about what water does in the perovskite formation process. As our current understanding stands, a suitable amount of water could be of help for growing high quality perovskite films due to the resultant formation of intermediates, such as MAPbI3·H2O, which facilitates the conversion from precursors to perovskites. However, too much water would induce the formation of relatively stable components, such as (MA)4PbI6·2H2O, which are left in the product-films as impurities resulting in degraded device performance. Continual efforts should be made to further understand and develop water-involved strategies for consistent PSC fabrication under ambient conditions.

Graphical abstract: Good or evil: what is the role of water in crystallization of organometal halide perovskites?

Article information

Article type
Focus
Submitted
06 5 2020
Accepted
05 6 2020
First published
05 6 2020

Nanoscale Horiz., 2020,5, 1147-1154

Good or evil: what is the role of water in crystallization of organometal halide perovskites?

S. Xiao, K. Zhang, S. Zheng and S. Yang, Nanoscale Horiz., 2020, 5, 1147 DOI: 10.1039/D0NH00270D

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements