Stability Assessment of p-i-n Perovskite Photovoltaic Mini-Modules Utilizing Different Top Metal Electrodes.

Long-term stability is one of the major challenges for p-i-n type perovskite solar modules (PSMs). Here, we demonstrate the fabrication of fully laser-patterned series interconnected p-i-n perovskite mini-modules, in which either single Cu or Ag layers are compared with Cu/Au metal-bilayer top electrodes. According to the scanning electron microscopy measurements, we found that Cu or Ag top electrodes often exhibit flaking of the metal upon P3 (top contact removal) laser patterning. For Cu/Au bilayer top electrodes, metal flaking may cause intermittent short-circuits between interconnected sub-cells during operation, resulting in fluctuations in the maximum power point (MPP). Here, we demonstrate Cu/Au metal-bilayer-based PSMs with an efficiency of 18.9% on an active area of 2.2 cm2 under continuous 1-sun illumination. This work highlights the importance of optimizing the top-contact composition to tackle the operational stability of mini-modules, and could help to improve the feasibility of large-area module deployment for the commercialization of perovskite photovoltaics.

Compositional and Interfacial Engineering Yield High-Performance and Stable p-i-n Perovskite Solar Cells and Mini-Modules.

Through the optimization of the perovskite precursor composition and interfaces to selective contacts, we achieved a p-i-n-type perovskite solar cell (PSC) with a 22.3% power conversion efficiency (PCE). This is a new performance record for a PSC with an absorber bandgap of 1.63 eV. We demonstrate that the high device performance originates from a synergy between (1) an improved perovskite absorber quality when introducing formamidinium chloride (FACl) as an additive in the "triple cation" Cs0.05FA0.79MA0.16PbBr0.51I2.49 (Cs-MAFA) perovskite precursor ink, (2) an increased open-circuit voltage, VOC, due to reduced recombination losses when using a lithium fluoride (LiF) interfacial buffer layer, and (3) high-quality hole-selective contacts with a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of [2-(9H-carbazol-9-yl)ethyl]phosphonic acid (2PACz) on ITO electrodes. While all devices exhibit a high performance after fabrication, as determined from current-density voltage, J-V, measurements, substantial differences in device performance become apparent when considering longer-term stability data. A reduced long-term stability of devices with the introduction of a LiF interlayer is compensated for by using FACl as an additive in the metal-halide perovskite thin-film deposition. Optimized devices maintained about 80% of the initial average PCE during maximum power point (MPP) tracking for >700 h. We scaled the optimized device architecture to larger areas and achieved fully laser patterned series-interconnected mini-modules with a PCE of 19.4% for a 2.2 cm2 active area. A robust device architecture and reproducible deposition methods are fundamental for high performance and stable large-area single junction and tandem modules based on PSCs.