Ionic transport in hybrid lead iodide perovskite solar cells

Christopher Eames; Jarvist M. Frost; Piers R.F. Barnes; Brian C. O'Regan; Aron Walsh; M. Saiful Islam

doi:10.1038/ncomms8497

Ionic transport in hybrid lead iodide perovskite solar cells

Christopher Eames, Jarvist M. Frost, Piers R.F. Barnes, Brian C. O'Regan, Aron Walsh, M. Saiful Islam

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1745 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Solar cells based on organic-inorganic halide perovskites have recently shown rapidly rising power conversion efficiencies, but exhibit unusual behaviour such as current-voltage hysteresis and a low-frequency giant dielectric response. Ionic transport has been suggested to be an important factor contributing to these effects; however, the chemical origin of this transport and the mobile species are unclear. Here, the activation energies for ionic migration in methylammonium lead iodide (CH 3 NH 3 PbI 3) are derived from first principles, and are compared with kinetic data extracted from the current-voltage response of a perovskite-based solar cell. We identify the microscopic transport mechanisms, and find facile vacancy-assisted migration of iodide ions with an activation energy of 0.6eV, in good agreement with the kinetic measurements. The results of this combined computational and experimental study suggest that hybrid halide perovskites are mixed ionic-electronic conductors, a finding that has major implications for solar cell device architectures.

Original language	English
Article number	7497
Journal	Nature communications
Volume	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms8497
Publication status	Published - 2015 Jun 24

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We gratefully acknowledge support from the EPSRC for the Energy Materials Programme grant (EP/K016288), Archer HPC facilities through the Materials Chemistry Consortium (EP/L000202), research grant EP/M014797/1 and P.R.F.B.’s fellowship (EP/J002305/1). We thank C.H. Law for his assistance with device preparation, and P. Cameron, C.A.J. Fisher, L.M. Peter and M.T. Weller for useful discussions.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited.

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Chemistry(all)
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology(all)
Physics and Astronomy(all)

Access to Document

10.1038/ncomms8497

Cite this

@article{a9ff35d2cb884f66b1cab2791e5b05a2,

title = "Ionic transport in hybrid lead iodide perovskite solar cells",

abstract = "Solar cells based on organic-inorganic halide perovskites have recently shown rapidly rising power conversion efficiencies, but exhibit unusual behaviour such as current-voltage hysteresis and a low-frequency giant dielectric response. Ionic transport has been suggested to be an important factor contributing to these effects; however, the chemical origin of this transport and the mobile species are unclear. Here, the activation energies for ionic migration in methylammonium lead iodide (CH 3 NH 3 PbI 3) are derived from first principles, and are compared with kinetic data extracted from the current-voltage response of a perovskite-based solar cell. We identify the microscopic transport mechanisms, and find facile vacancy-assisted migration of iodide ions with an activation energy of 0.6eV, in good agreement with the kinetic measurements. The results of this combined computational and experimental study suggest that hybrid halide perovskites are mixed ionic-electronic conductors, a finding that has major implications for solar cell device architectures.",

author = "Christopher Eames and Frost, {Jarvist M.} and Barnes, {Piers R.F.} and O'Regan, {Brian C.} and Aron Walsh and Islam, {M. Saiful}",

note = "Funding Information: We gratefully acknowledge support from the EPSRC for the Energy Materials Programme grant (EP/K016288), Archer HPC facilities through the Materials Chemistry Consortium (EP/L000202), research grant EP/M014797/1 and P.R.F.B.{\textquoteright}s fellowship (EP/J002305/1). We thank C.H. Law for his assistance with device preparation, and P. Cameron, C.A.J. Fisher, L.M. Peter and M.T. Weller for useful discussions. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited.",

year = "2015",

month = jun,

day = "24",

doi = "10.1038/ncomms8497",

language = "English",

volume = "6",

journal = "Nature Communications",

issn = "2041-1723",

publisher = "Nature Publishing Group",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Ionic transport in hybrid lead iodide perovskite solar cells

AU - Eames, Christopher

AU - Frost, Jarvist M.

AU - Barnes, Piers R.F.

AU - O'Regan, Brian C.

AU - Walsh, Aron

AU - Islam, M. Saiful

N1 - Funding Information: We gratefully acknowledge support from the EPSRC for the Energy Materials Programme grant (EP/K016288), Archer HPC facilities through the Materials Chemistry Consortium (EP/L000202), research grant EP/M014797/1 and P.R.F.B.’s fellowship (EP/J002305/1). We thank C.H. Law for his assistance with device preparation, and P. Cameron, C.A.J. Fisher, L.M. Peter and M.T. Weller for useful discussions. Publisher Copyright: © 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited.

PY - 2015/6/24

Y1 - 2015/6/24

N2 - Solar cells based on organic-inorganic halide perovskites have recently shown rapidly rising power conversion efficiencies, but exhibit unusual behaviour such as current-voltage hysteresis and a low-frequency giant dielectric response. Ionic transport has been suggested to be an important factor contributing to these effects; however, the chemical origin of this transport and the mobile species are unclear. Here, the activation energies for ionic migration in methylammonium lead iodide (CH 3 NH 3 PbI 3) are derived from first principles, and are compared with kinetic data extracted from the current-voltage response of a perovskite-based solar cell. We identify the microscopic transport mechanisms, and find facile vacancy-assisted migration of iodide ions with an activation energy of 0.6eV, in good agreement with the kinetic measurements. The results of this combined computational and experimental study suggest that hybrid halide perovskites are mixed ionic-electronic conductors, a finding that has major implications for solar cell device architectures.

AB - Solar cells based on organic-inorganic halide perovskites have recently shown rapidly rising power conversion efficiencies, but exhibit unusual behaviour such as current-voltage hysteresis and a low-frequency giant dielectric response. Ionic transport has been suggested to be an important factor contributing to these effects; however, the chemical origin of this transport and the mobile species are unclear. Here, the activation energies for ionic migration in methylammonium lead iodide (CH 3 NH 3 PbI 3) are derived from first principles, and are compared with kinetic data extracted from the current-voltage response of a perovskite-based solar cell. We identify the microscopic transport mechanisms, and find facile vacancy-assisted migration of iodide ions with an activation energy of 0.6eV, in good agreement with the kinetic measurements. The results of this combined computational and experimental study suggest that hybrid halide perovskites are mixed ionic-electronic conductors, a finding that has major implications for solar cell device architectures.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84933046578&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84933046578&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1038/ncomms8497

DO - 10.1038/ncomms8497

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84933046578

SN - 2041-1723

VL - 6

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

M1 - 7497

ER -

Ionic transport in hybrid lead iodide perovskite solar cells

Abstract

Bibliographical note

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this