Technical / research

Novel furan-based polymer could enable hybrid PSCs with improved efficiency and stability

Researchers from Singapore's Nanyang Technological University and France's University of Lille (CNRS) have developed a biomass-derived furan-based conjugated polymer, PBDF-DFC, enabling a simplified direct precursor integration fabrication method for hybrid perovskite solar cells (HPSCs). 

Unlike traditional thiophene-based polymers, PBDF-DFC reportedly exhibits high solubility in perovskite precursor solvents, allowing direct incorporation into the precursor solution. This direct precursor integration approach could significantly streamline the fabrication process, reducing steps and potentially lowering production costs. 

Read the full story Posted: Feb 17,2025

New low-cost and scalable recycling method makes perovskite solar cells more sustainable

Researchers from Linköping University, Cornell University, Westlake University and the University of Toledo have reported a low-cost, green-solvent-based holistic recycling method to restore all valuable components from perovskite solar cells (PSCs) waste.  

Scheme of recycling process with a water-based solution. Three main additives (NaOAc, NaI and H3PO2) are added to address perovskite solubility, phase purity and solution stability issues in water solution. Image credit: Nature

The scalable, aqueous-based method to recycle perovskite solar cells could offer an environmentally friendly solution that minimizes end-of-life waste while maintaining performance. This addresses various sustainability concerns – such as toxicity, limited recycling options, and resource depletion – that pose significant challenges to the widespread adoption of PSCs.

Read the full story Posted: Feb 14,2025

Novel mixed-polymer-C60 strategy enables inverted perovskite solar cell with 25.6% efficiency

An international team, including researchers from EPFL, CNR SCITEC, Fujian Normal University, Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) and others, has used an n-type polymeric additive to stabilize C60 molecules for use in inverted perovskite solar cells. The researchers reportedly designed a solar cell with the highest efficiency value ever recorded for perovskite devices based on solution processed C60 electron transport layers.

The team explained that C60 is currently the best-performing type of ETL for perovskite solar cells, although it suffers from “significant” aggregation in solution, which makes a high-cost and complex thermal evaporation method necessary for its development. To solve this issue, it utilized an n-type polymeric additive to stabilize C60 molecules for solution processing. “We introduced an n-type polymeric additive, TPDI-BTI, constructed from the strongly electron-deficient dithienylpyrazinediimide (TPDI) and the imide-functionalized bithiophene (BTI) co-unit and applied it into the C60 ETLs,” the researchers explained. “By controlling the TPDI-BTI addition, we can systematically regulate the ETLs, including film formability and morphological stability, energy levels and electron transport dynamics, intermolecular interacting behaviors and interfacial contacts, and finally, the photovoltaic performance and long-term stability of the cells.”

Read the full story Posted: Feb 13,2025

New strategy stabilizes wide-bandgap perovskites and enables improved Cu(In,Ga)Se2 tandem solar cells

Researchers from China's Westlake University, Advanced Solar Technology Institute of Xuancheng and Turkey's Marmara University have addressed the stability issues of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) by developing a divalent cation replacement strategy that mitigates ionic migration while limiting phase segregation. 

Using the new method, the scientists fabricated a champion cell that showed a PCE of 23.20% (certified 22.71%) for a single-junction PSC with a bandgap between 1.67 eV and 1.68 eV. Furthermore, a PCE of 30.13% was obtained for mechanically stacked perovskite/Cu(In,Ga)Se2 tandem devices, and a PCE of 21.88% for transparent perovskite devices. Finally, they obtained a steady-state PCE of 23.28% (certified 22.79%) for flexible monolithic perovskite/Cu(In,Ga)Se2 tandem cells.

Read the full story Posted: Feb 07,2025

New one-step method combines photolithography and solution processing to prepare superior perovskite single crystal arrays under ambient conditions

Halide perovskite single crystals have demonstrated enormous potential for next-generation integrated optoelectronic devices. However, there is a lack of
a facile method to realize the controllable growth of large-scale, high-quality, and high-resolution perovskite single crystal arrays on diverse types of
substrates, which hinders their application in practical scenarios. 

 Schematic illustration of the method to prepare perovskite single crystal arrays. Image from: Advanced Science

Now, researchers from the University of Hong Kong, Nankai University and Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have developed a one-step wettability-guided blade coating approach for the rapid in situ crystallization of large-scale, multicolor, and sub-100 nm perovskite single-crystal arrays in ambient conditions.

Read the full story Posted: Feb 06,2025

New stepwise solvent-annealing strategy enables efficient 4T perovskite-CIGS tandem solar cells

Researchers from China's Northwest Normal University, Xidian University and Xi'an Shiyou University have developed a four-terminal perovskite-CIGS tandem solar cell based on a top semi-transparent perovskite device with an efficiency of 21.26% and a high bifaciality factor of 92.2%. The scientists used a solvent-annealing strategy to produce a perovskite film with full coverage, larger grains, superior crystallinity and free of detectable lead iodide impurity.

The team fabricated a four-terminal (4T) tandem solar cell based on a top semi-transparent perovskite device and a bottom cell relying on copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS). The scientists used a stepwise dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) solvent-annealing method to improve the crystallinity of the perovskite film used in the perovskite top cell and fabricated films with a wide bandgap of 1.68 eV via two consecutive heating steps: annealing at 100 C and then 80 C.

Read the full story Posted: Feb 04,2025

Perovskite solar cells enable hydrocarbon synthesis from CO2

Researchers from the University of Cambridge, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a novel way to make hydrocarbons – powered solely by the sun.

a) Architecture of the tandem PEC device. b) A schematic illustration of the nanoporous electrode. Image credit: Nature Catalysis

The device they developed combines a light absorbing ‘leaf’ made from a perovskite solar cell, with a copper nanoflower catalyst, to convert carbon dioxide into useful molecules. Unlike most metal catalysts, which can only convert CO₂ into single-carbon molecules, the copper flowers enable the formation of more complex hydrocarbons with two carbon atoms, such as ethane and ethylene — key building blocks for liquid fuels, chemicals and plastics.

Read the full story Posted: Feb 03,2025

Researchers develop perovskite solar cell with 26.05% efficiency using 3D/2D heterostructures

The controlled growth of two-dimensional (2D) perovskites on top of three-dimensional (3D) perovskite films can improve the performance and stability of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) by reducing interfacial recombination and impeding ion migration. However, the random orientation of the spontaneously formed 2D phase atop the pre-deposited 3D perovskite film can deteriorate charge extraction owing to energetic disorder, limiting the maximum attainable efficiency and long-term stability of the PSCs. 

Schematic illustrating the reorientation of the 2D-MAP perovskite during and after the post-dripping process. Image credit: Nature Communications

Recently, an international team of scientists, including ones from Saudi Arabia’s KAUST, Korea University and the Chinese Academy of Science, developed a meta-amidinopyridine ligand and the solvent post-dripping step to generate a highly ordered 2D perovskite phase on the surface of a 3D perovskite film. 

Read the full story Posted: Jan 30,2025

Using Lauramide molecules as a surface modification layer shown to successfully stabilize perovskite solar cells

Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Hebei University of Science and Technology, Hebei University of Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Anhui Institute of Innovation for Industrial Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei University of Technology and Liaocheng University have used Lauramide (LA) molecules on perovskite films as a surface modification layer. As a result, the team demonstrated a multifunctional surface molecular modification strategy to develop high-efficiency perovskite solar cells. 

By depositing the layer of LA molecule, the defects on the perovskite surface were successfully passivated. LA can form hydrogen bonds with iodide ions (I) and promote anchoring to impede the migration of I inside the crystal structure. The lone electron pair of the carbonyl (C=O) functional group in LA can also coordinate with the uncoordinated lead ions (Pb2+) or lead clusters (Pb0), which effectively reduces the non-radiative recombination caused by surface defects. 

Read the full story Posted: Jan 29,2025

Stable quasi-2D perovskites thin films can enable stable LED applications

While quasi-2D perovskites made with organic spacers co-crystallized with inorganic cesium lead bromide can enable near unity photoluminescence quantum yield at room temperature, LEDs made with such quasi-2D perovskites tend to degrade rapidly - which remains a major bottleneck in this field.

Now, researchers from SUNY University at Buffalo, Texas A&M University, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Missouri University of Science and Technology, National Taiwan University and Yonsei University have shown that the bright emission originates from finely tuned multi-component 2D nano-crystalline phases that are thermodynamically unstable.

Read the full story Posted: Jan 28,2025