Moisture-Induced Non-Equilibrium Phase Segregation in Triple Cation Mixed Halide Perovskite Monitored by In Situ Characterization Techniques and Solid-State NMR

Environmental stability is a major bottleneck of perovskite solar cells.Only a handful of studies are investigating the effect of moisture on the structural degradation of the absorber.They mostly rely on ex situ experiments and on completely degraded samples,which restrict the assessment on initial and final stage.By combining in situ X-ray diffraction under controlled 85%relative humidity,and live observations of the water-induced degradation using liquid-cell transmission electron microscopy,we reveal two competitive degradation paths leading on one hand to the decomposition of state-of-theart mixed cation/anion(Cs_(0.05)(MA_(0.17)FA_(0.83))_(0.95)Pb(Br_(0.17)I_(0.83))_(3)(CsMAFA)into PbI_(2) through a dissolution/recrystallization mechanism and,on the other hand,to a non-equilibrium phase segregation leading to CsPb_(2)Br_(5) and a Cesium-poor/iodide-rich Cs_(0.05)-x(MA_(0.17)FA_(0.83))_(0.95)Pb(Br_(0.17-2y)I_(0.83)+2y)_(3) perovskite.This degradation mechanism is corroborated at atomic-scale resolution through solid-state ^(1)H and ^(133)Cs NMR analysis.Exposure to moisture leads to a film containing important heterogeneities in terms of morphology,photoluminescence intensities,and lifetimes.Our results provide new insights and consensus that complex perovskite compositions,though very performant as champion devices,are comparatively metastable,a trait that limits the chances to achieve long-term stability.

Chemometric analysis of femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy data:Study of the photochromism of anils

Chemometric methods are applied for the purpose of extracting relevant information from transient absorption spectroscopy data probing the photochromism of molecules from the family of salicylidene aniline. The process consists of an ultrafast excited state intramolecular proton transfer occurring from an enol form which is then followed by a cis-trans isomerization to finally reach a trans-keto photo-product. This work focuses on the potential of combining multivariate curve resolution for modeling pure profiles and two dimensional correlation spectroscopy data analysis for providing information on the dynamics of spectral features. The results obtained for one derivative of salicylidene aniline provide information regarding the number of species created after the proton transfer and characterization of their absorption spectra and their kinetics in the picosecond time scale. The spectral resolution of two cis-keto* forms is proposed for the first time. It is also found that both cis-keto* species are involved in the formation of the trans-keto photo-product. The main precursor of the trans-keto photo-product is the cis-keto* form which has the shortest characteristic time.