Progress in efficiency and stability of hybrid perovskite photovoltaic devices in high reactive environments

Abstract Hybrid inorganic-organic perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are at the center of attention among researchers worldwide because of their exceptional performance in the past few years. The material perovskite poses outstanding electronic properties, such as high carrier diffusion length, high electron mobility, high absorption coefficient, ambipolar charge transport behavior, low exciton binding energy, high photoluminescence quantum efficiency, optimum and tunable bandgap, high carrier lifetime, and many more. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of PSCs has exhibited a vast increment from 3.2% to 24.2% within a decade. Other established solar cells like silicon (Si) cells took almost 25 years to reach this level. The PCE of Si cell (26.7%) is now defeated by tandem perovskite solar cells by attaining an efficiency of 28%. In this work, we discuss the progress in the performance of PSCs in terms of efficiency and stability. Despite all merits, these cells have some drawbacks which are hindering their commercialization. The PSCs tend to degrade very rapidly, shortening the lifespan of the device. The aspects affecting the lifetime and performance of the PSCs, along with some of the remedial steps taken by the researchers are discussed in this chapter.