solar energy research article

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Solar energy articles within Nature

Article | 14 October 2024

Isomeric diammonium passivation for perovskite–organic tandem solar cells

• , Shucheng Qin
•  &  Yongfang Li

Strain regulation retards natural operation decay of perovskite solar cells

• Yunxiu Shen
• , Tiankai Zhang

Homogenized contact in all-perovskite tandems using tailored 2D perovskite

• , Renxing Lin
•  &  Hairen Tan

Coherent growth of high-Miller-index facets enhances perovskite solar cells

•  &  Rui Zhu

Article | 30 September 2024

High-efficiency and thermally stable FACsPbI 3 perovskite photovoltaics

• , Yuanzhi Jiang
•  &  Mingjian Yuan

Article | 26 September 2024

Impurity-healing interface engineering for efficient perovskite submodules

An impurity-healing interface engineering strategy is developed to address the issue in small-area solar cells and large-scale submodules.

• Haifei Wang
• , Shuojian Su
•  &  Yixin Zhao

Article | 05 September 2024

Perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells with bilayer interface passivation 

A power conversion efficiency of 33.89% is achieved in perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells by using a bilayer passivation strategy to enhance electron extraction and suppress recombination.

• , Yongcai He
•  &  Xixiang Xu

Article | 08 July 2024

Two-dimensional perovskitoids enhance stability in perovskite solar cells

We find that 2D–3D perovskitoid passivation applied to perovskite solar cells impedes cation migration and decreases carrier recombination at the interface, providing enhanced operating stability at elevated temperatures and increased power conversion efficiencies.

•  &  Mercouri G. Kanatzidis

Article 24 April 2024 | Open Access

High carrier mobility along the [111] orientation in Cu 2 O photoelectrodes

A study introduces a novel method to grow single-crystal Cu 2 O thin films with selected crystal orientations, highlighting enhanced bulk carrier mobility and carrier diffusion length along the [111] direction that yields Cu 2 O photocathodes with improved performance.

• Linfeng Pan
• , Linjie Dai
•  &  Samuel D. Stranks

Article 04 March 2024 | Open Access

Dopant-additive synergism enhances perovskite solar modules

A synergistic dopant-additive combination strategy using methylammonium chloride as the dopant and a Lewis-basic ionic-liquid additive is shown to enable the fabrication of perovskite solar modules achieving record certified performance and long-term operational stability.

• , Yong Ding
•  &  Mohammad Khaja Nazeeruddin

Article | 04 March 2024

Triple-junction solar cells with cyanate in ultrawide-bandgap perovskites

Triple-junction solar cells with cyanate in ultrawide-bandgap perovskites exhibit enhanced defect formation energy and substantially decreased non-radiative recombination.

• Shunchang Liu
•  &  Yi Hou

Article | 31 January 2024

Flexible silicon solar cells with high power-to-weight ratios

A study reports a combination of processing, optimization and low-damage deposition methods for the production of silicon heterojunction solar cells exhibiting flexibility and high performance.

• , Xiaoning Ru
•  &  Zongping Shao

Article 01 November 2023 | Open Access

Homogenizing out-of-plane cation composition in perovskite solar cells

We added out-of-plane cations to homogenize the distribution of cations in perovskite films, resulting in a solar cell with improved efficiency and stability.

• Zheng Liang
• , Yong Zhang
•  &  Xu Pan

Article | 23 October 2023

Low-loss contacts on textured substrates for inverted perovskite solar cells

A co-adsorbent is used to achieve a uniform self-assembled phosphonic acid monolayer on a textured substrate, leading to more efficient inverted perovskite solar cells.

• So Min Park
• , Mingyang Wei
•  &  Edward H. Sargent

Article | 28 September 2023

Enhanced optoelectronic coupling for perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells

An independently certified power conversion efficiency of 32.5% for perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells is achieved through improved charge transfer at the amorphous indium zinc oxide interconnecting layer and reduced optical losses at the front and rear electrodes.

• Erkan Aydin
• , Esma Ugur
•  &  Stefaan De Wolf

Article | 13 September 2023

Flatband λ-Ti 3 O 5 towards extraordinary solar steam generation

A route to greatly elevate joint densities of states by introducing a flat-band electronic structure is demonstrated, showing metallic λ-Ti 3 O 5 powders have a high solar absorptivity and offering insights into access to cost-effective solar-to-steam generation.

• , Zhiming Zhang
•  &  Liang Zuo

Article | 08 June 2023

All-perovskite tandem solar cells with 3D/3D bilayer perovskite heterojunction

All-perovskite tandem solar cells with an immiscible 3D/3D bilayer heterojunction demonstrate a record-high PCE of 28%, as well as the ability to retain more than 90% of their initial performance after 600 h of continuous operation.

• Renxing Lin
• , Yurui Wang

Perspective | 24 May 2023

Lead immobilization for environmentally sustainable perovskite solar cells

An analysis of chemical processes to immobilize lead from perovskite solar cells is presented, highlighting the need for a standard lead-leakage test and mathematical model to reliably evaluate the potential environmental risk of perovskite optoelectronics.

• , Jin-Wook Lee
•  &  Nam-Gyu Park

Article | 24 May 2023

Inverted perovskite solar cells using dimethylacridine-based dopants

A dimethylacridine-based molecular doping process is used to construct a well-matched p -perovskite/indium tin oxide contact, along with all-round passivation of grain boundaries, achieving a certified power conversion efficiency of 25.39%.

• , Zhaoning Li
•  &  Zhubing He

Article 24 May 2023 | Open Access

Flexible solar cells based on foldable silicon wafers with blunted edges

Modules of foldable crystalline silicon solar cells retain their power-conversion efficiency after being subjected to bending stress or exposure to air-flow simulations of a violent storm.

• , Yujing Liu
•  &  Zhengxin Liu

Article 03 May 2023 | Open Access

The electron–proton bottleneck of photosynthetic oxygen evolution

Microsecond infrared spectroscopy together with quantum chemistry reveal the rate-determining proton and electron movements and identify an oxygen-radical state of the manganese cluster as the S4 state.

• Paul Greife
• , Matthias Schönborn
•  &  Holger Dau

Article | 29 March 2023

Improving interface quality for 1-cm 2 all-perovskite tandem solar cells

A self-assembled monolayer of (4-(7 H -dibenzo[ c,g ]carbazol-7-yl)butyl)phosphonic acid is integrated in wide-bandgap perovskite solar cells, which enables a high power conversion efficiency and low open-circuit voltage deficiency, as well as efficient centimetre-scale all-perovskite tandem solar cells.

• , Wanhai Wang
•  &  Dewei Zhao

Article | 16 February 2023

Controlled growth of perovskite layers with volatile alkylammonium chlorides

In situ grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy were used to evaluate the crystallization process and surface morphology of perovskite thin films coated with alkylammonium chlorides, which were used to fabricate high-efficiency perovskite solar cells.

• Jaewang Park
• , Jongbeom Kim
•  &  Sang Il Seok

Article | 08 February 2023

Water splitting with silicon p–i–n superlattices suspended in solution

The simplicity of particle suspension reactors and the precise synthetic control afforded by silicon nanowire growth are used to develop a system that can produce hydrogen fuel by splitting water with sunlight.

• Taylor S. Teitsworth
• , David J. Hill
•  &  James F. Cahoon

Article | 04 January 2023

Solar-to-hydrogen efficiency of more than 9% in photocatalytic water splitting

Photocatalytic water splitting with a high solar-to-hydrogen efficiency of more than nine per cent is achieved using pure water, concentrated solar light and an indium gallium nitride photocatalyst.

• , Ishtiaque Ahmed Navid
•  &  Zetian Mi

Article | 15 November 2022

Regulating surface potential maximizes voltage in all-perovskite tandems

Because open-circuit voltage deficit is greater in wide-bandgap perovskite solar cells, the authors introduce diammonium molecules to modify perovskite surface states and achieve a more uniform spatial distribution of surface potential, enabling record voltage all-perovskite tandem solar cells.

• , Aidan Maxwell

Article | 12 October 2022

Spatiotemporal imaging of charge transfer in photocatalyst particles

Photovoltage measurements on cuprous oxide photocatalyst particles are used to spatiotemporally track the charge transfer processes on the femtosecond to second timescale at the single-particle level.

• Ruotian Chen
• , Zefeng Ren
•  &  Can Li

Article | 13 April 2022

Perovskite–organic tandem solar cells with indium oxide interconnect

A thin low-loss indium oxide interconnect layer grown by atomic layer deposition enables perovskite–organic hybrid tandem solar cells with a high open-circuit voltage and a high power conversion efficiency.

• K. O. Brinkmann
• , T. Becker
•  &  T. Riedl

Article | 26 January 2022

Centimetre-scale perovskite solar cells with fill factors of more than 86 per cent

Perovskite solar cells including charge transport material fabricated using a reverse-doping process have the highest certified efficiency for cells of 1-cm 2 active area and the highest fill factor reported so far.

• , Felipe Kremer
•  &  Kylie R. Catchpole

Article | 17 January 2022

All-perovskite tandem solar cells with improved grain surface passivation

A certified efficiency of 26.4% in all-perovskite tandem solar cells, exceeding that of the best-performing single-junction perovskite solar cells, is achieved by control over surface defects in the Pb–Sn subcell.

Article | 03 November 2021

Drop-in fuels from sunlight and air

Carbon-neutral hydrocarbon fuels can be produced using sunlight and air via a thermochemical solar fuel production chain, thus representing a pathway towards the long-term decarbonization of the aviation sector.

• Remo Schäppi
• , David Rutz
•  &  Aldo Steinfeld

Article | 29 September 2021

The role of charge recombination to triplet excitons in organic solar cells

A substantial pathway for energy loss in organic solar cells may be suppressed by engineering hybridization between non-fullerene acceptor triplet excitons and spin-triplet charge transfer excitons.

• Alexander J. Gillett
• , Alberto Privitera
•  &  Richard H. Friend

Article | 25 August 2021

Photocatalytic solar hydrogen production from water on a 100-m 2 scale

Carbon-neutral hydrogen can be produced through photocatalytic water splitting, as demonstrated here with a 100-m 2 array of panel reactors that reaches a maximum conversion efficiency of 0.76%.

• Hiroshi Nishiyama
• , Taro Yamada
•  &  Kazunari Domen

Article | 05 April 2021

Pseudo-halide anion engineering for α-FAPbI 3 perovskite solar cells

Incorporation of the pseudo-halide anion formate during the fabrication of α-FAPbI 3 perovskite films eliminates deleterious iodide vacancies, yielding solar cell devices with a certified power conversion efficiency of 25.21 per cent and long-term operational stability.

• Jaeki Jeong
• , Minjin Kim
•  &  Jin Young Kim

Article | 19 February 2020

On-device lead sequestration for perovskite solar cells

Using lead-absorbing materials to coat the front and back of perovskite solar cells can prevent lead leaching from damaged devices, without affecting the device performance or long-term operation stability.

• , Fei Zhang
•  &  Tao Xu

Article | 07 October 2019

Carrier-resolved photo-Hall effect

A carrier-resolved photo-Hall technique is developed to extract properties of both majority and minority carriers simultaneously and determine the critical parameters of semiconductor materials under light illumination.

• Oki Gunawan
• , Seong Ryul Pae
•  &  Byungha Shin

Letter | 09 September 2019

Intrinsically stable organic solar cells under high-intensity illumination

Organic photovoltaic cells containing an intrinsically stable organic absorber layer that are likely to be stable for many decades under illumination are demonstrated.

• Quinn Burlingame
• , Xiaheng Huang
•  &  Stephen R. Forrest

Letter | 10 July 2019

Planar perovskite solar cells with long-term stability using ionic liquid additives

Addition of an ionic liquid, BMIMBF 4 , to metal halide perovskite solar cells improves their efficiency and long-term operation under accelerated aging conditions of high temperature and full-spectrum sunlight.

• , Peimei Da
•  &  Henry J. Snaith

Letter | 03 July 2019

Sensitization of silicon by singlet exciton fission in tetracene

A silicon and tetracene solar cell employing singlet fission uses an eight-angstrom-thick hafnium oxynitride interlayer to promote efficient triplet transfer, increasing the efficiency of the cell.

• Markus Einzinger
•  &  Marc A. Baldo

Letter | 27 March 2019

Efficient, stable and scalable perovskite solar cells using poly(3-hexylthiophene)

A double-layered halide architecture for perovskite solar cells enables the use of dopant-free poly(3-hexylthiophene) as a hole-transport material, forming stable and scalable devices with a certified power conversion efficiency of 22.7 per cent.

• Eui Hyuk Jung
• , Nam Joong Jeon
•  &  Jangwon Seo

Letter | 17 October 2018

Ceramic–metal composites for heat exchangers in concentrated solar power plants

A robust ceramic/refractory metal (ZrC/W)-based composite for use in heat exchangers in concentrated solar power plants above 1,023 kelvin is described, having attractive high-temperature thermal, mechanical and chemical properties combined with cost-effective processing.

• , M. Tabandeh-Khorshid
•  &  K. H. Sandhage

Letter | 26 September 2018

Self-powered ultra-flexible electronics via nano-grating-patterned organic photovoltaics

Detection of biometric signals by self-powered electronic devices that are highly flexible and can be applied to skin.

• Sungjun Park
• , Soo Won Heo
•  &  Takao Someya

Article | 12 October 2017

Pumping liquid metal at high temperatures up to 1,673 kelvin

By using ceramics for the mechanical and sealing components of a mechanical pump, liquid metal can be circulated continuously at temperatures at least as high as 1,673 kelvin.

• , D. Budenstein
•  &  A. Henry

Letter | 06 September 2017

A solvent- and vacuum-free route to large-area perovskite films for efficient solar modules

A new deposition method for solar-panel polycrystalline perovskite thin films enables the production of large-area uniform films and avoids the need for common solvents or vacuum.

•  &  Liyuan Han

Letter | 26 April 2017

The effect of illumination on the formation of metal halide perovskite films

Films of metal halide perovskite are used as the absorber material in solar cells, and light irradiation during their formation is shown to affect their crystallization, morphology and photovoltaic performance.

• Amita Ummadisingu
• , Ludmilla Steier
•  &  Michael Grätzel

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