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Title: Engineering Stress in Perovskite Solar Cells to Improve Stability

Abstract

An overlooked factor affecting stability: the residual stresses in perovskite films, which are tensile and can exceed 50 MPa in magnitude, a value high enough to deform copper, is reported. These stresses provide a significant driving force for fracture. Films are shown to be more unstable under tensile stress—and conversely more stable under compressive stress—when exposed to heat or humidity. Increasing the formation temperature of perovskite films directly correlates with larger residual stresses, a result of the high thermal expansion coefficient of perovskites. Specifically, this tensile stress forms upon cooling to room temperature, as the substrate constrains the perovskite from shrinking. No evidence of stress relaxation is observed, with the purely elastic film stress attributed to the thermal expansion mismatch between the perovskite and substrate. Additionally, the authors demonstrate that using a bath conversion method to form the perovskite film at room temperature leads to low stress values that are unaffected by further annealing, indicating complete perovskite formation prior to annealing. It is concluded that reducing the film stress is a novel method for improving perovskite stability, which can be accomplished by lower formation temperatures, flexible substrates with high thermal expansion coefficients, and externally applied compressive stress after fabrication.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Stanford Univ., CA (United States)
  2. Stanford Univ., CA (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
  3. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Stanford Univ., CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF)
OSTI Identifier:
1579795
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1469240; OSTI ID: 1686152
Grant/Contract Number:  
EE0008154; EE0004946; AC02‐76SF00515; DGE‐1656518; ECCS‐1542152; EE0008167; AC02-76SF00515
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Advanced Energy Materials
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 8; Journal Issue: 29; Journal ID: ISSN 1614-6832
Publisher:
Wiley
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; Degradation; flexible; reliability; strain; thermal expansion

Citation Formats

Rolston, Nicholas, Bush, Kevin A., Printz, Adam D., Gold-Parker, Aryeh, Ding, Yichuan, Toney, Michael F., McGehee, Michael D., and Dauskardt, Reinhold H. Engineering Stress in Perovskite Solar Cells to Improve Stability. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1002/aenm.201802139.
Rolston, Nicholas, Bush, Kevin A., Printz, Adam D., Gold-Parker, Aryeh, Ding, Yichuan, Toney, Michael F., McGehee, Michael D., & Dauskardt, Reinhold H. Engineering Stress in Perovskite Solar Cells to Improve Stability. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201802139
Rolston, Nicholas, Bush, Kevin A., Printz, Adam D., Gold-Parker, Aryeh, Ding, Yichuan, Toney, Michael F., McGehee, Michael D., and Dauskardt, Reinhold H. Mon . "Engineering Stress in Perovskite Solar Cells to Improve Stability". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201802139. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1579795.
@article{osti_1579795,
title = {Engineering Stress in Perovskite Solar Cells to Improve Stability},
author = {Rolston, Nicholas and Bush, Kevin A. and Printz, Adam D. and Gold-Parker, Aryeh and Ding, Yichuan and Toney, Michael F. and McGehee, Michael D. and Dauskardt, Reinhold H.},
abstractNote = {An overlooked factor affecting stability: the residual stresses in perovskite films, which are tensile and can exceed 50 MPa in magnitude, a value high enough to deform copper, is reported. These stresses provide a significant driving force for fracture. Films are shown to be more unstable under tensile stress—and conversely more stable under compressive stress—when exposed to heat or humidity. Increasing the formation temperature of perovskite films directly correlates with larger residual stresses, a result of the high thermal expansion coefficient of perovskites. Specifically, this tensile stress forms upon cooling to room temperature, as the substrate constrains the perovskite from shrinking. No evidence of stress relaxation is observed, with the purely elastic film stress attributed to the thermal expansion mismatch between the perovskite and substrate. Additionally, the authors demonstrate that using a bath conversion method to form the perovskite film at room temperature leads to low stress values that are unaffected by further annealing, indicating complete perovskite formation prior to annealing. It is concluded that reducing the film stress is a novel method for improving perovskite stability, which can be accomplished by lower formation temperatures, flexible substrates with high thermal expansion coefficients, and externally applied compressive stress after fabrication.},
doi = {10.1002/aenm.201802139},
journal = {Advanced Energy Materials},
number = 29,
volume = 8,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Sep 10 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Mon Sep 10 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}

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