Substance and shadow of formamidinium lead triiodide based solar cells

The current decade has witnessed a surge of progress in the investigation of methyl ammonium lead iodide (MAPbI3) perovskites for solar cells fabrication due to their intriguing electro-optical properties, despite the material’s intrinsic degradation that has restricted its commercialisation. As a promising alternative, its’ formamidinium ananlogue, FAPbI3 based solar cells are currently being actively pursued having demonstrated a certified efficiency of 24.4%, while, the room-temperature conversion to a non-perovskite d-phase impedes its further commercialisation and strategies have been adopted to overcome the phase instability. In-depth and real time understanding of microstructural relationships with optoelectronic properties and its underlying mechanisms through operando in-situ spectroscopic techniques is paramount. Thus the designing and the development of new process, data driven methodology, charecterization and evaluation protocols for perovskite absorber layer and the fabricated devices are judicious research direction. Here, in this perspective, we shed light on the compositional, surface engineering and crystallization kinetics manipulations for FAPbI3 followed by a proposition for unified testing protocols in order to uplift the devices from the lab to the market