Perovskite-polymer blends influencing microstructure, non-radiative recombination pathways and photovoltaic performance of perovskite solar cells.

Solar cells based on organic-inorganic halide perovskite are now leading the photovoltaic technologies due to their high power conversion efficiency. Recently, there have been debates on the microstructure related defects in metal halide perovskites (grain size, grain boundaries, etc.) and a widespread view is that large grains are a prerequisite to suppress non-radiative recombination and improve photovoltaic performance although opinions against it also exist. Herein, we employ blends of methylammonium lead iodide perovskite with an insulating polymer (polyvinylpyrrolidone, PVP) that offer the possibility to tune the grain size in order to obtain a fundamental understanding of the photoresponse at the microscopic level. We provide, for the first time, spatially-resolved details of the microstructure in such blend systems via Raman mapping, light beam induced current (LBIC) imaging and conductive atomic force microscopy. Although the polymer blend systems systematically alter the morphology by creating small grains (more grain boundaries), they reduce non-radiative recombination within the film and enhance its spatial homogeneity of radiative recombination. We attribute this to a reduction in the density of bulk trap states, as evidenced by an order of magnitude higher photoluminescence intensity and a significantly higher open-circuit voltage when the polymer is incorporated into the perovskite films. The solar cells employing blend systems also show nearly hysteresis-free power conversion efficiency ~17.5%, as well as a remarkable shelf-life stability over 100 days.