Perovskite Solar Cells in Space: Evaluation of Perovskite Solar Cell Hole Transport Material in Space Environment

Majority of spacecrafts rely on solar power as the main source of energy. The search for a lightweight and cost-efficient energy source with high power conversion efficiency (PCE) led to the development of organic-inorganic metal halide Perovskite solar cells (PSCs). In this paper, the performance of PSCs with different hole-transport material (HTM) prepared for in-orbit demonstration mission onboard CubeSats are compared under simulated space environment such as thermal cycling stress, high-vacuum, UV radiation and vibration. Results show that even though organic and inorganic HTM display superior initial PCE, Carbon HTM PSCs trumps them in terms of stability and is more practical for use in space. The paper also discusses the satellite mission and developed hardware for the first demonstration of Perovskite solar cells on-board a satellite to gather in-orbit information on the performance of Perovskite solar cells in low-earth orbit and how the ground test results would be verified.