Improved water repellency and environmental stability of perovskite solar cells by encapsulating with paraffin wax

Abstract

Hybrid organic-inorganic metal halide perovskite solar cells are the fastest growing cost-effective photovoltaic technology because of their solution processability and lightweight properties. However, the poor stability of perovskite materials in presence of moisture is the main hindrance to their outdoor applications. Here, paraffin wax is explored as an encapsulating material for improving the water repellency of perovskite solar cells. For this purpose, the drop of paraffin from a burning candle is placed on the device area composed of methylammonium lead iodide as a perovskite material and doped poly(3-hexylthiophene) as a hole-transporting layer. The encapsulation does not affect the photovoltaic performance of the tested devices in ambient conditions, exhibiting the same performance as in an inert atmosphere. Moreover, the photovoltaic performance of the encapsulated solar cells remains unchanged even after 2160 h under ambient conditions with continuous exposure to the relative humidity in the range of 70–85%. The encapsulation is so robust that the photovoltaic performance of the cells does not change even after immersing the encapsulated cell in water or after heating at 85 °C. This performance of paraffin coating is superior to many reported sealing agents, which are deposited using costly instruments or by multistep processes. Thus, the paraffin exhibits the potential to be used as an alternative low-cost coating material for perovskite solar cells.