Recent trends in efficiency-stability improvement in perovskite solar cells

Organic-inorganic halide perovskites solar cells (PSCs) has emerged as reasonable alternative for the predominating PV technologies (Crystalline silicon solar cells) available in market. In a span of a decade, perovskites have achieved an efficiency from 3.8% in 2009 to 23.7% in 2018. In spite of this giant leap in efficiency, it is still plagued by problems surrounding its photovoltaic performance. The stability of the best performing perovskite solar cells is just a year compared to 25 years in commercial silicon cells. Many of these problems have been addressed by using different methods of preparation, using novel materials and by engineering its device architecture. There has not been a comprehensive review on the performance of perovskite solar cell which includes both the stability and efficiency of the solar cell. These are the main evaluating factors in establishing a commercial success of perovskite solar cell. This review summarises recent research trends on perovskites solar cells which includes its thin film preparation, novel electron transport layers (ETL) and hole transport layers (HTL) used for its device architecture and the common challenges faced which offers an insight on future developments. This review paper covers recent novel research trends in perovskite solar cells with focus on:•Chemical stability and efficiency both (simultaneous goal) under different condition.•High quality perovskite film fabrication routes with annealing temperature control.•Impact of compositional variation of perovskite film on solar cell’s performance.•Novel materials used as HTL and HTM, addition of Ligands, Lead-Free cells.