Perovskite solar cells should be subjected to a combination of stress tests simultaneously to best predict how they will function outdoors, according to researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
Perovskite solar cells should be subjected to a combination of stress tests simultaneously to best predict how they will function outdoors, according to researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
Solar cells must endure a set of harsh conditions—often with variable combinations of changing stress factors—to judge their stability, but most researchers conduct these tests indoors with a few fixed stressing conditions. While these tests provide some necessary insight, understanding which stressor applied during indoor tests provided predictive correlations with outdoor operation is critical.
“We must understand how well perovskite solar cells will perform outdoors, under real conditions, to move this technology closer to commercialization,” said Kai Zhu, a senior scientist in the Chemistry and Nanoscience Center at NREL. “That’s why we identified accelerated testing protocols that can be conducted in the laboratory to reveal how these cells would function after six months in operation outside.”
Zhu is lead author of a newly published paper, “Towards linking lab and field lifetimes of perovskite solar cells,” which appears in the journal Nature. His co-authors from NREL are Qi Jiang, Robert Tirawat, Ross Kerner, E. Ashley Gaulding, Jimmy Newkirk, and Joseph Berry. Other co-authors are from the University of Toledo, who have collaborated with Zhu on several other recent papers about perovskites.
Read more at DOE/National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Image: Perovskite solar cell. Credit: Dennis Schroeder / National Renewable Energy Laboratory
