Perovskite-inspired materials for photovoltaics and beyond—from design to devices

Yi-Teng Huang, Seán R Kavanagh, David O Scanlon, Aron Walsh, Robert L Z Hoye

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Abstract

Lead-halide perovskites have demonstrated astonishing increases in power conversion efficiency in photovoltaics over the last decade. The most efficient perovskite devices now outperform industry-standard multi-crystalline silicon solar cells, despite the fact that perovskites are typically grown at low temperature using simple solution-based methods. However, the toxicity of lead and its ready solubility in water are concerns for widespread implementation. These challenges, alongside the many successes of the perovskites, have motivated significant efforts across multiple disciplines to find lead-free and stable alternatives which could mimic the ability of the perovskites to achieve high performance with low temperature, facile fabrication methods. This Review discusses the computational and experimental approaches that have been taken to discover lead-free perovskite-inspired materials, and the recent successes and challenges in synthesizing these compounds. The atomistic origins of the extraordinary performance exhibited by lead-halide perovskites in photovoltaic devices is discussed, alongside the key challenges in engineering such high-performance in alternative, next-generation materials. Beyond photovoltaics, this Review discusses the impact perovskite-inspired materials have had in spurring efforts to apply new materials in other optoelectronic applications, namely light-emitting diodes, photocatalysts, radiation detectors, thin film transistors and memristors. Finally, the prospects and key challenges faced by the field in advancing the development of perovskite-inspired materials towards realization in commercial devices is discussed.
Original languageEnglish
Article number132004
Number of pages60
JournalNanotechnology
Volume32
Issue number13
Early online date8 Jan 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 26 Mar 2021

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgments:
Yi-Teng Huang acknowledges funding from Ministry of Education from Taiwan Government as well as Downing College Cambridge. Seán R Kavanagh acknowledges funding from the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Advanced Characterisation of Materials (CDT-ACM)( EP/S023259/1), as well as the use of VESTA [477] (for crystal structure visualization) and Freepik.com (for vector image templates) in the preparation of figure 2. David O Scanlon acknowledges support from the European Research Council, ERC (Grant 758345). Aron Walsh acknowledges support for this work by a National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MSIT) (No. 2018R1C1B6008728). Robert L Z Hoye acknowledges support from the Royal Academy of Engineering under the Research Fellowships scheme (No. RF\201718/1701), Downing College Cambridge via the Kim and Juliana Silverman Research Fellowship, and the Isaac Newton Trust (Minute 19.07(d)).

Keywords

  • lead-halide perovskites
  • perovskite-inspired materials
  • materials discovery
  • defects
  • non-radiative recombination
  • nanocrystals
  • density functional theory

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