Solar cells articles from across Nature Portfolio

The performance of kesterite solar cells is limited by the formation of secondary phases and defects during the growth of their photovoltaic absorbers. New research shows that a tailored partial pressure of selenium leads to less-defective kesterite without the formation of intermediate phases, enabling 13.8%-efficiency solar cells.

Perovskite solar cells must overcome the long-term stability problem in order to be put into practical use. Materials science, through the development of synthetic chemistry, materials characterization and device engineering can contribute to improvements in stability and scalability towards enabling large scale production. This Collection presents recent research efforts in stabilizing perovskite solar cells with three interconnected themes: characterizing instability, synthesizing stable perovskites and curing the interfaces.

Capping a three-dimensional metal halide perovskite with a layered, two-dimensional perovskite prevents ions from diffusing out of the perovskite keeping out oxygen and water as well as contributing to solar cell stability. New research shows that a thin cross-linked polymer layer can ensure that the boundary between the 3D and 2D materials remains sharp, further improving stability.

The limited durability of perovskite photovoltaics has held back the technology. New research unveils a class of low-dimensionality perovskites based on metals such as zinc, cobalt or copper that protects the 3D perovskite solar absorber from degradation while affording high efficiency.