Analyzing the degradation mechanisms in perovskite solar cells over a span of three years

This study investigates the impact of environmental factors on the degradation of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) over a three-year period. Devices with a glass/FTO/compact-TiO<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf>/mesoporous-TiO<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf>/perovskite/Spiro-OMeTAD/Au architecture were fabricated and subjected to stability tests. Advanced characterization techniques, including ToF-SIMS, XPS, and XRD, revealed significant ion migration and a decline in power conversion efficiency (PCE) from 17% to 5%, primarily attributed to the structural deterioration of the perovskite layer. Lead (Pb) diffusion emerged as a key degradation mechanism, contributing to long-term instability. Photoluminescence (PL) analysis further highlighted reduced emission spectra, indicating the formation of defects induced by ion migration. These findings offer valuable insights into the challenges of PSC longevity and highlight opportunities for optimizing device architecture to develop scalable PSCs suitable for commercial applications.