Electric-Field-Induced Degradation of Methylammonium Lead Iodide Perovskite Solar Cells

J Phys Chem Lett. 2016 Aug 18;7(16):3091-6. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.6b01176. Epub 2016 Jul 29.

Abstract

Perovskite solar cells have great potential for high efficiency generation but are subject to the impact of external environmental conditions such as humidity, UV and sun light, temperature, and electric fields. The long-term stability of perovskite solar cells is an important issue for their commercialization. Various studies on the stability of perovskite solar cells are currently being performed; however, the stability related to electric fields is rarely discussed. Here the electrical stability of perovskite solar cells is studied. Ion migration is confirmed using the temperature-dependent dark current decay. Changes in the power conversion efficiency according to the amount of the external bias are measured in the dark, and a significant drop is observed only at an applied voltage greater than 0.8 V. We demonstrate that perovskite solar cells are stable under an electric field up to the operating voltage.