Towards operation-stabilizing perovskite solar cells: Fundamental materials, device designs, and commercial applications

Over the last decade, perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have drawn extensive attention owing to their high power conversion efficiency (single junction: 26.1%, perovskite/silicon tandem: 33.9%) and low fabrication cost. However, the short lifespan of PSCs with initial efficiency still blocks their practical applications. This operational instability may originate from the intrinsic and extrinsic degradation of materials or devices. Although the lifetime of PSCs has been prolonged through component, crystal, defect, interface, encapsulation engineering, and so on, the systematic analysis of failure regularity for PSCs from the perspective of materials and devices against multiple operating stressors is indispensable. In this review, we start with elaboration of the predominant degradation pathways and mechanism for PSCs under working stressors. Then the strategies for improving long-term durability with respect to fundamental materials, interface designs, and device encapsulation have been summarized. Meanwhile, the key results have been discussed to understand the limitation of assessing PSCs stability, and the potential applications in indoor photovoltaics and wearable electronics are demonstrated. Finally, promising proposals, encompassing material processing, film formation, interface strengthening, structure designing, and device encapsulation, are provided to improve the operational stability of PSCs and promote their commercialization.image A short lifetime of perovskite photovoltaics, with respect to extrinsic and intrinsic instability, originates from the decomposition of function-layer materials, the failure of heterointerfaces, and the degradation of optoelectronic performance against multiple stressors. Stabilizing strategies from material processing, film formation, interface strengthening, structure designing, and device encapsulation can systematically improve the durability of perovskite photovoltaics and facilitate their commercialization. image