Proceedings of 13th Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV21)
Publication date: 11th May 2021
A compromise between high power conversion efficiency and long-term stability of hybrid organic-inorganic metal halide perovskite solar cells is necessary for their outdoor photovoltaic application and commercialization. Herein, We have developed a method to improve the stability of perovskite solar cells under water and moisture exposure consisting in the encapsulation of the cell with an ultrathin plasma polymer. The deposition of the polymer is carried out at room temperature by the remote plasma vacuum deposition of adamantane powder. This encapsulation method does not affect the photovoltaic performance of the tested devices and is virtually compatible with any device configuration independently of the chemical composition. After 30 days under ambient conditions with a relative humidity in the 35% – 60% range, the absorbance of encapsulated perovskite films remains practically unaltered. The deterioration in the photovoltaic performance of the corresponding encapsulated devices becomes also significantly delayed with respect to devices without encapsulation when vented continuously with very humid air (RH > 85%). More impressively, when encapsulated solar devices were immersed in liquid water, the photovoltaic performance was not affected at least within the first 60 seconds. In fact, it has been possible to measure the power conversion efficiency of encapsulated devices under operation in water. The proposed method opens up a new promising strategy to develop stable photovoltaic and photocatalytic perovskite devices.