Extending the Continuous Operating Lifetime of Perovskite Solar Cells with a Molybdenum Disulfide Hole Extraction Interlayer

Abstract

Solution-processed organic–inorganic lead halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are considered as one of the most promising photovoltaic technologies thanks to both high performance and low manufacturing cost. However, a key challenge of this technology is the lack of ambient stability over prolonged solar irradiation under continuous operating conditions. In fact, only a few studies (carried out in inert atmosphere) already approach the industrial standards. Here, it is shown how the introduction of MoS2 flakes as a hole transport interlayer in inverted planar PSCs results in a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of ≈17%, overcoming the one of the standard reference devices. Furthermore, this approach allows the realization of ultrastable PSCs, stressed in ambient conditions and working at continuous maximum power point. In particular, the photovoltaic performances of the proposed PSCs represent the current state-of-the-art in terms of lifetime, retaining 80% of their initial performance after 568 h of continuous stress test, thus approaching the industrial stability standards. Moreover, it is further demonstrated the feasibility of this approach by fabricating large-area PSCs (0.5 cm2 active area) with MoS2 as the interlayer. These large-area PSCs show improved performance (i.e., PCE = 13.17%) when compared with the standard devices (PCE = 10.64%).