Perovskite solar cells - An overview of critical issues

Perovskite solar cell research has been attracting increasing attention in recent years. In this review paper, we will provide an overview of the recent developments in terms of material composition, deposition techniques, and the device architecture (the choice of charge transport layers and electrodes). Then, we will critically discuss some of the major problems, namely device stability, hysteresis, environmental implications due to the presence of a toxic metal (lead), and difficulties in fabrication of large area and/or flexible devices. In addition, we will also discuss tandem cells and modules, as well as the application of perovskites in other devices and the integration of perovskite solar cells with other devices. Finally, we discuss future outlook and important issues which need to be addressed for the wide scale applications of these devices. Lifetime and stability are identified as the key issue to be addressed for wide scale applications, and the majority of environmental impact is due to the use of organic solvents or other components in the device, not the lead-containing perovskite absorber. The standardisation of the testing conditions and more studies involving outdoor testing are needed for convincing demonstrations of good stability as opposed to dark storage testing. Another key issue is upscaling and reproducibility of the film preparation, which can be problematic due to high sensitivity of the perovskite film to the processing conditions. To overcome these obstacles multilaboratory collaborative efforts would be highly desirable.