Solar cells articles within Nature Materials

Featured

  • Article |

    Iodide-related defects pose serious challenges to the irradiation, thermal, light or reverse-bias stabilities of perovskite solar cells. Here, the authors find that by using the iodide/polyiodide capture and confine effects of perfluorodecyl iodide interfacing with perovskites, inverted perovskite solar cells achieve much improved stabilities.

    • Xiaoxue Ren
    • , Jifei Wang
    •  & Yongbo Yuan

  • Research Briefing |

    The discovery of passivating agents for perovskite photovoltaics can be an arduous and time-consuming process. Now, a machine-learning model is reported that accelerates the selection of bifunctional pseudo-halide passivators. The identified pseudo-halide passivators were experimentally shown to enhance the performance of perovskite solar cells.

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Optically stimulated vibrational control for materials has the potential to improve the performance of optoelectronic devices. The vibrational control of FAPbBr3 perovskite solar cells has been demonstrated, where the fast dynamics of coupling between cations and inorganic sublattice may suppress non-radiative recombinations in perovskites, leading to reduced voltage losses.

    • Nathaniel. P. Gallop
    • , Dmitry R. Maslennikov
    •  & Artem A. Bakulin

  • Article |

    Pseudo-halide anion engineering is an effective surface passivation strategy for perovskite-based optoelectronics but the large chemical space of molecules limits its potential. Here, the authors create a machine learning workflow to find optimized pseudo-halide anions, which are verified in devices with improved performances.

    • Jian Xu
    • , Hao Chen
    •  & Edward H. Sargent

  • Perspective |

    It is imperative that sustainability issues are considered throughout the life cycle of modern organic electronic devices. Here McCulloch and colleagues evaluate the status of embedded carbon, options for more sustainable materials, and recycling solutions both during manufacturing and at the end of life in organic electronic products.

    • Iain McCulloch
    • , Michael Chabinyc
    •  & Scott Edward Watkins

  • Article |

    The stability of halide perovskite solar cells, determined by film morphology, is paramount to their commercialization. Here, the authors introduce a high-temperature DMSO-free method that enables better control of the grain size, texturing, orientation and crystallinity to achieve improved device operational stability.

    • David P. McMeekin
    • , Philippe Holzhey
    •  & Henry J. Snaith

  • News & Views |

    Spectral shifts in transient photoluminescence measurements performed with a confocal microscope allow tracking of charge carrier mobilities in polycrystalline halide perovskites.

    • Thomas Kirchartz

  • Article |

    A discrepancy exists between the low diffusion coefficients and near-unity charge collection efficiencies achieved in practical halide perovskite solar cells. Here, the authors explain this through the discovery of strong heterogeneity in vertical charge diffusivities in a 3D perovskite film.

    • Changsoon Cho
    • , Sascha Feldmann
    •  & Neil C. Greenham

  • Review Article |

    This Review provides an outlook on current understanding of the role of strain on the performance and stability of perovskite solar cells, as well as on tools to characterize strain in halide perovskite films and on strain management strategies.

    • Dongtao Liu
    • , Deying Luo
    •  & Wei Zhang

  • News & Views |

    First-principles calculations on a prototypical hybrid organic–inorganic perovskite reveal an unexpected role for hydrogen defects in the optoelectronic properties of this material.

    • Leeor Kronik
    •  & Andrew M. Rappe

  • Article |

    First-principles calculations reveal that hydrogen vacancies induce non-radiative losses in methylammonium lead iodide perovskites synthesized under iodine-poor conditions, whereas they are less detrimental in formamidinium-based hybrid perovskites.

    • Xie Zhang
    • , Jimmy-Xuan Shen
    •  & Chris G. Van de Walle

  • Why it Matters |

    Olga Malinkiewicz, founder of Saule Technologies, discusses her transition from academia to industry.

    • Olga Malinkiewicz

  • Article |

    Although the photogeneration yield spectrum is a key property for photoabsorbers in photovoltaic and photoelectrochemical cells, its characterization remains challenging. An empirical method to extract this parameter through quantum efficiency measurements of ultrathin films is proposed.

    • Daniel A. Grave
    • , David S. Ellis
    •  & Avner Rothschild

  • News & Views |

    Use of polymer and small-molecule semiconductors with relatively poor miscibility helps the long-term stability of the morphology and photovoltaic performance of bulk heterojunction films used in organic solar cells.

    • Andrew T. Kleinschmidt
    •  & Darren J. Lipomi

  • News & Views |

    Non-fullerene acceptors have successfully overcome energy losses that were thought to be unavoidable in organic solar cells based on fullerene derivatives. However, it is now shown that they have limits too.

    • Justin M. Hodgkiss

  • Article |

    Oscillatory features in the absorption spectra of formamidinium lead triiodide perovskite thin films reveal the occurrence of intrinsic quantum confinement effects with confinement on the scale of tens of nanometres.

    • Adam D. Wright
    • , George Volonakis
    •  & Laura M. Herz

  • Letter |

    Flexoelectricity is the ability of materials to generate electricity upon bending. Here it is demonstrated that adding light to mechanical oscillation enhances effective flexoelectric coefficients by orders of magnitude, with the halide perovskites showing the largest coefficients.

    • Longlong Shu
    • , Shanming Ke
    •  & Gustau Catalan

  • News & Views |

    Organic donor–acceptor heterojunctions can show efficient electroluminescence and at the same time generate charges under photovoltaic operation.

    • Wolfgang Brütting

  • News & Views |

    Impulsive Raman spectroscopy reveals how atoms are pushed into action by light absorption. The surprising sensitivity of this behaviour to the polaronic character of 2D perovskites opens up new avenues for tailored light–matter interactions.

    • Christoph Schnedermann
    • , Akshay Rao
    •  & Philipp Kukura

  • Article |

    Combined multimodal atomic force microscopy, ion microscopy, ion mass spectrometry and infrared spectrometry experiments explore the chemical properties of ferroelastic twin domains in hybrid lead halide perovskites.

    • Yongtao Liu
    • , Liam Collins
    •  & Olga S. Ovchinnikova

  • News & Views |

    A two-step deposition method has been developed that enables the conformal coating of textured surfaces with perovskite films. This allows the realization of perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells with increased short-circuit current density.

    • Anita Ho-Baillie

  • Feature |

    Kiyoshi Miyata and X.-Y. Zhu analyse the ferroelectric-like dielectric response of lead halide perovskites in the terahertz region and discuss the potential role of polar nanodomains in accounting for the defect tolerance and low recombination rates of these materials.

    • Kiyoshi Miyata
    •  & X.-Y. Zhu

  • Feature |

    Charge carriers in metal halide perovskites seem to be only marginally affected by defect-related trap states. Filippo De Angelis and Annamaria Petrozza suggest that the key to this behaviour lies in the redox chemistry of halide defects.

    • Filippo De Angelis
    •  & Annamaria Petrozza

  • Feature |

    Claudine Katan, Aditya D. Mohite and Jacky Even discuss the possible impact of various entropy contributions (stochastic structural fluctuations, anharmonicity and lattice softness) on the optoelectronic properties of halide perovskite materials and devices.

    • Claudine Katan
    • , Aditya D. Mohite
    •  & Jacky Even

  • Feature |

    Heavy atoms and crystal or inversion symmetry breaking may promote Rashba effects in halide perovskites. Sam Stranks and Paulina Plochocka propose experiments to assess the existence of these effects and their implications on the photophysics of perovskites.

    • Samuel D. Stranks
    •  & Paulina Plochocka

  • Editorial |

    Whether you like exploring the mysteries of light–matter interactions, playing with a versatile chemical platform, or developing the most efficient devices, metal halide perovskites could be the materials for you.

  • Comment |

    Solar cells based on metal halide perovskites continue to approach their theoretical performance limits thanks to worldwide research efforts. Mastering the materials properties and addressing stability may allow this technology to bring profound transformations to the electric power generation industry.

    • Henry J. Snaith

  • News & Views |

    The ionic conductivity of a halide perovskite can be boosted by light. This may be detrimental for perovskite solar cells, but also holds promise for solid-state photoelectrochemical devices.

    • Jürgen Fleig
    •  & Markus Kubicek

  • News & Views |

    Two independent research groups report on progress towards making every window a potential solar cell, using perovskite materials.

    • Jan Christoph Goldschmidt

  • Article |

    CsPbI3–xBrx solar cells, which undergo temperature- and moisture-driven reversible transitions between a non-perovskite transparent phase and a perovskite light-absorbing phase, are used as thermochromic photovoltaic devices integrated in windows.

    • Jia Lin
    • , Minliang Lai
    •  & Peidong Yang

  • News & Views |

    A study on the formation of methylammonium lead iodide perovskite films reveals that light illumination influences the crystallization kinetics, therefore affecting the final photovoltaic performance of these materials.

    • Osman M. Bakr
    •  & Omar F. Mohammed

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