Delamination of Perovskite Solar Cells in Thermal Cycling and Outdoor Tests

Abstract

For the commercialization of perovskite solar cells (PSCs), detection of associated degradation mechanisms and mitigation of their effect is of paramount importance. The former requires outdoor and indoor stability tests to detect these mechanisms under real operation conditions and to accelerate them under controlled environments. Herein, the thermomechanical stability of encapsulated PSCs in outdoor tests at three locations coupled with indoor thermal cycling tests is investigated. Results show that encapsulant-induced partial delamination can occur in outdoor and indoor tests, leading to disruption in device integrity and substantial loss in the cell active area and short-circuit current. The findings suggest that delamination involves C₆₀ and SnO₂ layers as the mechanically weakest point in the device stack. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first demonstration of delamination in encapsulated PSCs under real operation conditions. While partial delamination emerged on some of the cells exposed in Israel and Cyprus in just a few weeks, it did not occur in Germany over 2.5 years of outdoor exposure. This highlights the importance of multiclimate outdoor testing to validate the significance of failure modes observed through accelerated indoor testing.