The light instability of CH3NH3PbI x Br3-x is one of the biggest challenges for its application in tandem solar cells. Here we show that an improved crystallinity and grain size of CH3NH3PbI x Br3-x films could stabilize these materials under one sun illumination, improving both the efficiency and stability of the wide-bandgap perovskite solar cells.

The pressure to move towards renewable energy has inspired researchers to look for ideas in photovoltaics that may lead to a major breakthrough. Recently the use of perovskites as a light harvester has lead to stunning progress. The power conversion efficiency of perovskite solar cells is now approaching parity (>22 %) with that of the established technology which took decades to reach this lev...

All-inorganic perovskites have been recognized as promising photovoltaic materials. We simulated the perovskite material of TlPbI3 using ab initio electronic structure calculations. The band gap of 1.33 eV is extremely close to the theoretical optimum value. Compared TlPbI3 with CsPbI3, the total energy (-3980 eV) of the former is much lower than the latter. The partial density of states (PDOS)...

Organic-inorganic perovskite structures in which lead is substituted by tin are exceptional candidates for broadband light absorption. Herein we present a thorough analysis of the optical properties of CH3NH3Sn x Pb1-x I3 films, providing the field with definitive insights about the possibilities of these materials for perovskite solar cells of superior efficiency. We report a user's guide base...

The tolerance factor is a widely used predictor of perovskite stability. The recent interest in hybrid perovskites for use as solar cell absorbers has lead to application of the tolerance factor to these materials as a way to explain and predict structure. Here we critically assess the suitability of the tolerance factor for halide perovskites. We show that the tolerance factor fails to accurat...

Functional materials showing both negative thermal expansion (NTE) and physical performance, such as ferroelectricity and magnetism, have been extensively explored in the past decade. However, among ferroelectrics a remarkable NTE was only found in perovskite-type PbTiO3-based compounds. In this work, a large NTE of -4.7 × 10(-5) K(-1) is obtained in the non-perovskite lead-free ferroelectric S...

Organo lead halide perovskite materials like methylammonium lead iodide (CH3NH3PbI3) and formamidinium lead iodide (HC(NH2)2PbI3) show superb opto-electronic properties. Based on these perovskite light absorbers, power conversion efficiencies of the perovskite solar cells employing hole transporting layers have increased from 9.7% to 20.1% within just three years. Thus, it is apparent that pero...

In this article we review work on oxyanion (carbonate, borate, nitrate, phosphate, sulphate, silicate) doping in perovskite materials beginning with early work on doping studies in superconducting cuprates, and extending to more recent work on doping into perovskite-type solid oxide fuel cell materials. In this doping strategy, the central atom of the oxyanion group occupies the perovskite B ca...

The organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite CH3NH3PbI3 is a novel light harvester, which can greatly improve the solar-conversion efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells. In this article, a first-principle theoretical study is performed using local, semi-local and non-local exchange-correlation approximations to find a suitable method for this material. Our results, using the non-local optB86b + v...