Why Oxygen Increases Carrier Lifetimes but Accelerates Degradation of CH3NH3PbI3 under Light Irradiation: Time-Domain Ab Initio Analysis

Exposure to oxygen and light undermines chemical stability of metal halide perovskites, while it surprisingly improves their optical properties. Focusing on CH₃NH₃PbI₃, we demonstrate that material degradation and charge carrier lifetimes depend strongly on the oxidation state of the oxygen species. Nonadiabatic molecular dynamics simulations combined with time-domain density functional theory show that a neutral oxygen molecule has little influence on the perovskite stability, while the superoxide and the peroxide accelerate degradation by breaking Pb-I chemical bonds and enhancing atomic fluctuations. Creating electron and/or hole traps, the neutral oxygen and the superoxide decrease charge carrier lifetimes by over 1 and 2 orders of magnitude, respectively. Importantly, photoinduced reduction of oxygen to the peroxide eliminates trap states and extends carrier lifetimes by more than a factor of 2 because it decreases the nonadiabatic coupling and shortens quantum coherence. The simulations indicate that the superoxide should be strongly avoided, for example, by full reduction to the peroxide because it causes simultaneous degradation of perovskite stability and optical properties. The detailed simulations rationalize the complex interplay between the influence of atmosphere and light on perovskite performance, apply to other solar cell materials exposed to natural elements, and provide valuable insights into design of high-performance solar cells.