Effect of Halide Composition on the Photochemical Stability of Perovskite Photovoltaic Materials

The photochemical stability of encapsulated films of mixed halide perovskites with a range of MAPb(I_1−xBr_x)₃ (MA=methylammonium) compositions (solid solutions) was investigated under accelerated stressing using concentrated sunlight. The relevance of accelerated testing to standard operational conditions of solar cells was confirmed by comparison to degradation experiments under outdoor sunlight exposure. We found that MAPbBr₃ films exhibited no degradation, while MAPbI₃ and mixed halide MAPb(I_1−xBr_x)₃ films decomposed yielding crystallization of inorganic PbI₂ accompanied by degradation of the perovskite solar light absorption, with faster absorption degradation in mixed halide films. The crystal coherence length was found to correlate with the stability of the films. We postulate that the introduction of Br into the mixed halide solid solution stressed its structure and induced more structural defects and/or grain boundaries compared to pure halide perovskites, which might be responsible for the accelerated degradation. Hence, the cause for accelerated degradation may be the increased defect density rather than the chemical composition of the perovskite materials.