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Defect activity in metal halide perovskites with wide and narrow bandgap

Nature Reviews Materials volume 6, pages 986–1002 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Metal halide perovskites (MHPs) constitute a rich library of materials with huge potential for disruptive optoelectronic technologies. Their main strength comes from the possibility of easily tuning their bandgap to integrate them in devices with different functionalities — in principle. In reality, this cannot be achieved yet. In fact, whereas defect tolerance can be claimed for MHPs with a bandgap of about 1.6 eV, the model system that is the object of intense investigations, MHPs with lower and higher bandgaps are far from being defect-tolerant. These materials show various forms of instabilities that are mainly driven by strong defect activity. Here we critically assess the most recent advances in elucidating the physical and chemical activity of defects in both high-bandgap and low-bandgap MHPs, while correlating it to performance and stability losses, especially for solar cells, the driving application for these materials. We also provide an overview of the strategies so far implemented to eventually overcome the remaining materials-based and device-based challenges.

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Fig. 1: State-of-the-art tandem subcells based on wide-bandgap and narrow-bandgap MHPs.
Fig. 2: Impact of point defects on halide segregation.
Fig. 3: Role of GBs in halide segregation.
Fig. 4: Trap-mediated performance and stability of perovskite optoelectronic devices.
Fig. 5: Impact of halide segregation and energy-level alignment on energy loss of wide-bandgap metal halide perovskite solar cells.
Fig. 6: Impact of alloying of the Sn site by Pb on point defects.
Fig. 7: Interface modulation in FASnI3 MHP solar cells.

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Acknowledgements

This work has been funded by the European Union project PERT PV under grant agreement no. 763977 and ERC project SOPHY under grant agreement N 771528.

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Yang Zhou, Isabella Poli.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Nano Science and Technology @PoliMi, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Milan, Italy

    Yang Zhou, Isabella Poli & Annamaria Petrozza

  2. Computational Laboratory for Hybrid/Organic Photovoltaics (CLHYO), Istituto CNR di Scienze e Tecnologie Chimiche “Giulio Natta” (CNR- SCITEC), Perugia, Italy

    Daniele Meggiolaro

  3. Department of Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnology, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy

    Filippo De Angelis

  4. CompuNet, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy

    Filippo De Angelis

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Contributions

Y.Z., I.P. and A.P. conceived the review structure. Y.Z. developed the section on high-bandgap semiconductors. I.P. developed the section on narrow-bandgap semiconductors. D.M. and F.D.A. reviewed the contribution to the field from theoretical studies. All authors contributed to the writing and revision of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Annamaria Petrozza.

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Nature Reviews Materials thanks Jinsong Huang, Michael D. McGehee and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Zhou, Y., Poli, I., Meggiolaro, D. et al. Defect activity in metal halide perovskites with wide and narrow bandgap. Nat Rev Mater 6, 986–1002 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-021-00331-x

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