Mild water intake orients crystal formation imparting high tolerance on unencapsulated halide perovskite solar cells

The irreversible phase transition by water incorporation, along with thermal decomposition, has long been thought to be the dominant degradation pathway to deteriorate electronic and optoelectronic properties of perovskite devices. However, comprehensive characterization and insightful understanding of beneficial effect of water incorporation remains scarce. Here, we capture the phase transformation of perovskite in situ from its precursor stage to the final film upon thermal annealing as a function of relative humidity (RH) by grazing-incident wide-angle X-ray scattering. Quantitative structural analyses show that a moderate water content (RH 40%) enhances the texture orientation of the perovskite. A consequence of the guided water-incorporated treatment is that the unencapsulated device, without any sophisticated instability-mitigation approaches, exhibits excellent tolerance to long-term, light soaking and high-temperature aging, retaining more than 80% of the peak power-conversion efficiency under constant 1-sun illumination or heating at 65 degrees C for more than 1,000 h, respectively.

Automated summary

Moderate water content enhances the texture orientation of perovskite while guided water-incorporated treatment leads to excellent stability in unencapsulated devices, retaining over 80% of peak power-conversion efficiency after prolonged exposure to 1-sun illumination or heating at 65 degrees C for more than 1,000 hours.