Efficient, stable silicon tandem cells enabled by anion-engineered wide-bandgap perovskites
Engineering perovskites with anions
The bandgap of the perovskite top layer in tandem silicon solar cells must be tuned to ∼1.7 electron volts. Usually, the cation composition is varied because the bromine-rich anion compositions with wide bandgaps are structurally unstable. Kim et al. show that by using phenethylammonium as a two-dimensional additive, along with iodine and thiocyanate, bromine-rich perovskite films can be stabilized. A tandem silicon cell delivered >26% certified power conversion efficiency, and a perovskite device maintained 80% of its initial power conversion efficiency of >20% after 1000 hours under illumination.
Science, this issue p. 155
Abstract
Maximizing the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells that can exceed the Shockley-Queisser single-cell limit requires a high-performing, stable perovskite top cell with a wide bandgap. We developed a stable perovskite solar cell with a bandgap of ~1.7 electron volts that retained more than 80% of its initial PCE of 20.7% after 1000 hours of continuous illumination. Anion engineering of phenethylammonium-based two-dimensional (2D) additives was critical for controlling the structural and electrical properties of the 2D passivation layers based on a lead iodide framework. The high PCE of 26.7% of a monolithic two-terminal wide-bandgap perovskite/silicon tandem solar cell was made possible by the ideal combination of spectral responses of the top and bottom cells.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Already a Subscriber?Sign In
Supplementary Material
Summary
Materials and Methods
Figs. S1 to S16
Table S1
Resources
File (aba3433_kim_sm.pdf)
References and Notes
1
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, “Best Research-Cell Efficiency Chart” (2019); www.nrel.gov/pv/cell-efficiency.html.
2
J. Tong, Z. Song, D. H. Kim, X. Chen, C. Chen, A. F. Palmstrom, P. F. Ndione, M. O. Reese, S. P. Dunfield, O. G. Reid, J. Liu, F. Zhang, S. P. Harvey, Z. Li, S. T. Christensen, G. Teeter, D. Zhao, M. M. Al-Jassim, M. F. A. M. van Hest, M. C. Beard, S. E. Shaheen, J. J. Berry, Y. Yan, K. Zhu, Carrier lifetimes of >1 μs in Sn-Pb perovskites enable efficient all-perovskite tandem solar cells. Science 364, 475–479 (2019).
3
D. Kim, G. Y. Kim, C. Ko, S. R. Pae, Y. S. Lee, O. Gunawan, D. F. Ogletree, W. Jo, B. Shin, Effects of postsynthesis thermal conditions on methylammonium lead halide perovskite: Band bending at grain boundaries and its impacts on solar cell performance. J. Phys. Chem. C 120, 21330–21335 (2016).
4
S. R. Pae, S. Byun, J. Kim, M. Kim, I. Gereige, B. Shin, Improving Uniformity and Reproducibility of Hybrid Perovskite Solar Cells via a Low-Temperature Vacuum Deposition Process for NiOx Hole Transport Layers. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 10, 534–540 (2018).
5
Y. Rong, Y. Hu, A. Mei, H. Tan, M. I. Saidaminov, S. I. Seok, M. D. McGehee, E. H. Sargent, H. Han, Challenges for commercializing perovskite solar cells. Science 361, eaat8235 (2018).
6
J. P. Mailoa, C. D. Bailie, E. C. Johlin, E. T. Hoke, A. J. Akey, W. H. Nguyen, M. D. McGehee, T. Buonassisi, A 2-terminal perovskite/silicon multijunction solar cell enabled by a silicon tunnel junction. Appl. Phys. Lett. 106, 121105 (2015).
7
F. Sahli, J. Werner, B. A. Kamino, M. Bräuninger, R. Monnard, B. Paviet-Salomon, L. Barraud, L. Ding, J. J. Diaz Leon, D. Sacchetto, G. Cattaneo, M. Despeisse, M. Boccard, S. Nicolay, Q. Jeangros, B. Niesen, C. Ballif, Fully textured monolithic perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells with 25.2% power conversion efficiency. Nat. Mater. 17, 820–826 (2018).
8
B. Chen, Z. Yu, K. Liu, X. Zheng, Y. Liu, J. Shi, D. Spronk, P. N. Rudd, Z. Holman, J. Huang, Grain engineering for perovskite/silicon monolithic tandem solar cells with efficiency of 25.4%. Joule 3, 177–190 (2019).
9
H. Shen, S. T. Omelchenko, D. A. Jacobs, S. Yalamanchili, Y. Wan, D. Yan, P. Phang, T. Duong, Y. Wu, Y. Yin, C. Samundsett, J. Peng, N. Wu, T. P. White, G. G. Andersson, N. S. Lewis, K. R. Catchpole, In situ recombination junction between p-Si and TiO2 enables high-efficiency monolithic perovskite/Si tandem cells. Sci. Adv. 4, eaau9711 (2018).
10
M. Jošt, E. Köhnen, A. B. Morales-Vilches, B. Lipovšek, K. Jäger, B. Macco, A. Al-Ashouri, J. Krč, L. Korte, B. Rech, R. Schlatmann, M. Topič, B. Stannowski, S. Albrecht, Textured interfaces in monolithic perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells: Advanced light management for improved efficiency and energy yield. Energy Environ. Sci. 11, 3511–3523 (2018).
11
T. Leijtens, K. A. Bush, R. Prasanna, M. D. McGehee, Opportunities and challenges for tandem solar cells using metal halide perovskite semiconductors. Nat. Energy 3, 828–838 (2018).
12
E. T. Hoke, D. J. Slotcavage, E. R. Dohner, A. R. Bowring, H. I. Karunadasa, M. D. McGehee, Reversible photo-induced trap formation in mixed-halide hybrid perovskites for photovoltaics. Chem. Sci. 6, 613–617 (2015).
13
Z. Wang, Q. Lin, F. P. Chmiel, N. Sakai, L. M. Herz, H. J. Snaith, Efficient ambient-air-stable solar cells with 2D–3D heterostructured butylammonium-caesium-formamidinium lead halide perovskites. Nat. Energy 2, 17135 (2017).
14
Y. Liu, S. Akin, L. Pan, R. Uchida, N. Arora, J. V. Milić, A. Hinderhofer, F. Schreiber, A. R. Uhl, S. M. Zakeeruddin, A. Hagfeldt, M. I. Dar, M. Grätzel, Ultrahydrophobic 3D/2D fluoroarene bilayer-based water-resistant perovskite solar cells with efficiencies exceeding 22%. Sci. Adv. 5, eaaw2543 (2019).
15
J.-W. Lee, Z. Dai, T.-H. Han, C. Choi, S.-Y. Chang, S.-J. Lee, N. De Marco, H. Zhao, P. Sun, Y. Huang, Y. Yang, 2D perovskite stabilized phase-pure formamidinium perovskite solar cells. Nat. Commun. 9, 3021 (2018).
16
M. Jung, T. J. Shin, J. Seo, G. Kim, S. I. Seok, Structural features and their functions in surfactant-armoured methylammonium lead iodide perovskites for highly efficient and stable solar cells. Energy Environ. Sci. 11, 2188–2197 (2018).
17
D. H. Kim, C. P. Muzzillo, J. Tong, A. F. Palmstrom, B. W. Larson, C. Choi, S. P. Harvey, S. Glynn, J. B. Whitaker, F. Zhang, Z. Li, H. Lu, M. F. A. M. van Hest, J. J. Berry, L. M. Mansfield, Y. Huang, Y. Yan, K. Zhu, Bimolecular Additives Improve Wide-Band-Gap Perovskites for Efficient Tandem Solar Cells with CIGS. Joule 3, 1734–1745 (2019).
18
J. A. Christians, P. Schulz, J. S. Tinkham, T. H. Schloemer, S. P. Harvey, B. J. Tremolet de Villers, A. Sellinger, J. J. Berry, J. M. Luther, Tailored interfaces of unencapsulated perovskite solar cells for >1,000 hour operational stability. Nat. Energy 3, 68–74 (2018).
19
J. Xu, C. C. Boyd, Z. J. Yu, A. F. Palmstrom, D. J. Witter, B. W. Larson, R. M. France, J. Werner, S. P. Harvey, E. J. Wolf, W. Weigand, S. Manzoor, M. F. A. M. van Hest, J. J. Berry, J. M. Luther, Z. C. Holman, M. D. McGehee, Triple-halide wide-band gap perovskites with suppressed phase segregation for efficient tandems. Science 367, 1097–1104 (2020).
20
X. Zhang, G. Wu, W. Fu, M. Qin, W. Yang, J. Yan, Z. Zhang, X. Lu, H. Chen, Orientation regulation of phenylethylammonium cation based 2D perovskite solar cell with efficiency higher than 11%. Adv. Energy Mater. 8, 1702498 (2018).
21
Y.-M. Kim, J. He, M. D. Biegalski, H. Ambaye, V. Lauter, H. M. Christen, S. T. Pantelides, S. J. Pennycook, S. V. Kalinin, A. Y. Borisevich, Probing oxygen vacancy concentration and homogeneity in solid-oxide fuel-cell cathode materials on the subunit-cell level. Nat. Mater. 11, 888–894 (2012).
22
H. J. Jung, D. Kim, S. Kim, J. Park, V. P. Dravid, B. Shin, Stability of halide perovskite solar cell devices: In situ observation of oxygen diffusion under biasing. Adv. Mater. 30, e1802769 (2018).
23
R. Ishikawa, E. Okunishi, H. Sawada, Y. Kondo, F. Hosokawa, E. Abe, Direct imaging of hydrogen-atom columns in a crystal by annular bright-field electron microscopy. Nat. Mater. 10, 278–281 (2011).
24
Q. Jiang, Y. Zhao, X. Zhang, X. Yang, Y. Chen, Z. Chu, Q. Ye, X. Li, Z. Yin, J. You, Surface passivation of perovskite film for efficient solar cells. Nat. Photonics 13, 460–466 (2019).
25
Y. C. Kim, N. J. Jeon, J. H. Noh, W. S. Yang, J. Seo, J. S. Yun, A. Ho-Baillie, S. Huang, M. A. Green, J. Seidel, T. K. Ahn, S. I. Seok, Beneficial effects of PbI2 incorporated in organo-lead halide perovskite solar cells. Adv. Energy Mater. 6, 1502104 (2016).
26
P. Fassl, V. Lami, A. Bausch, Z. Wang, M. T. Klug, H. J. Snaith, Y. Vaynzof, Fractional deviations in precursor stoichiometry dictate the properties, performance and stability of perovskite photovoltaic devices. Energy Environ. Sci. 11, 3380–3391 (2018).
27
O. G. Reid, D. T. Moore, Z. Li, D. Zhao, Y. Yan, K. Zhu, G. Rumbles, Quantitative analysis of time-resolved microwave conductivity data. J. Phys. D Appl. Phys. 50, 493002 (2017).
28
D. H. Kim, J. Park, Z. Li, M. Yang, J.-S. Park, I. J. Park, J. Y. Kim, J. J. Berry, G. Rumbles, K. Zhu, 300% enhancement of carrier mobility in uniaxial-oriented perovskite films formed by topotactic-oriented attachment. Adv. Mater. 29, 1606831 (2017).
29
O. Gunawan, S. R. Pae, D. M. Bishop, Y. Virgus, J. H. Noh, N. J. Jeon, Y. S. Lee, X. Shao, T. Todorov, D. B. Mitzi, B. Shin, Carrier-resolved photo-Hall effect. Nature 575, 151–155 (2019).
30
A. Cröll, J. Tonn, E. Post, H. Böttner, A. Danilewsky, Anisotropic and temperature-dependent thermal conductivity of PbI2. J. Cryst. Growth 466, 16–21 (2017).
31
I. J. Park, J. H. Park, S. G. Ji, M.-A. Park, J. H. Jang, J. Y. Kim, A Three-Terminal Monolithic Perovskite/Si Tandem Solar Cell Characterization Platform. Joule 3, 807–818 (2019).
32
J. Barthel, Dr. Probe: A software for high-resolution STEM image simulation. Ultramicroscopy 193, 1–11 (2018).
33
J. Werner, C.-H. Weng, A. Walter, L. Fesquet, J. P. Seif, S. De Wolf, B. Niesen, C. Ballif, Efficient monolithic perovskite/silicon tandem solar cell with cell area >1 cm2. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 7, 161–166 (2016).
34
K. A. Bush, A. F. Palmstrom, Z. J. Yu, M. Boccard, R. Cheacharoen, J. P. Mailoa, D. P. McMeekin, R. L. Z. Hoye, C. D. Bailie, T. Leijtens, I. M. Peters, M. C. Minichetti, N. Rolston, R. Prasanna, S. Sofia, D. Harwood, W. Ma, F. Moghadam, H. J. Snaith, T. Buonassisi, Z. C. Holman, S. F. Bent, M. D. McGehee, 23.6%-efficient monolithic perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells with improved stability. Nat. Energy 2, 17009 (2017).
35
F. Sahli, B. A. Kamino, J. Werner, M. Bräuninger, B. Paviet-Salomon, L. Barraud, R. Monnard, J. P. Seif, A. Tomasi, Q. Jeangros, A. Hessler-Wyser, S. De Wolf, M. Despeisse, S. Nicolay, B. Niesen, C. Ballif, Improved optics in monolithic perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells with a nanocrystalline silicon recombination junction. Adv. Energy Mater. 8, 1701609 (2018).
36
J. Zheng, C. F. J. Lau, H. Mehrvarz, F.-J. Ma, Y. Jiang, X. Deng, A. Soeriyadi, J. Kim, M. Zhang, L. Hu, X. Cui, D. S. Lee, J. Bing, Y. Cho, C. Chen, M. A. Green, S. Huang, A. W. Y. Ho-Baillie, Large area efficient interface layer free monolithic perovskite/homo-junction-silicon tandem solar cell with over 20% efficiency. Energy Environ. Sci. 11, 2432–2443 (2018).
37
K. A. Bush, S. Manzoor, K. Frohna, Z. J. Yu, J. A. Raiford, A. F. Palmstrom, H.-P. Wang, R. Prasanna, S. F. Bent, Z. C. Holman, M. D. McGehee, Minimizing current and voltage losses to reach 25% efficient monolithic two-terminal perovskite–silicon tandem solar cells. ACS Energy Lett. 3, 2173–2180 (2018).
38
L. Mazzarella, Y.-H. Lin, S. Kirner, A. B. Morales-Vilches, L. Korte, S. Albrecht, E. Crossland, B. Stannowski, C. Case, H. J. Snaith, R. Schlatmann, Infrared Light Management Using a Nanocrystalline Silicon Oxide Interlayer in Monolithic Perovskite/Silicon Heterojunction Tandem Solar Cells with Efficiency above 25%. Adv. Energy Mater. 9, 1803241 (2019).
Information & Authors
Information
Published In

Science
Volume 368 | Issue 6487
10 April 2020
10 April 2020
Copyright
Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.
This is an article distributed under the terms of the Science Journals Default License.
Article versions
You are viewing the most recent version of this article.
Submission history
Received: 27 November 2019
Accepted: 12 March 2020
Published in print: 10 April 2020
Acknowledgments
Funding: This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Korean government’s Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) (nos. NRF-2018R1A5A1025594, 2017R1A2B3010474, and 2020R1A2C3008111); the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) of the Republic of Korea (nos. 20183010014470 and 20193091010310); and the Nano-Material Technology Development Program (Green Nano Technology Development Program) through the NRF funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (nos. 2018M3A7B4065662 and 2019M3D1A2104109). The work at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory was supported by De-risking Halide Perovskite Solar Cells program of the National Center for Photovoltaics, funded by Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Solar Energy Technologies Office, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under contract no. DE-AC36-08GO28308 with Alliance for Sustainable Energy, Limited Liability Company (LLC), the Manager and Operator of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The views expressed in the article do not necessarily represent the views of the DOE or the U.S. government. The U.S. government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the U.S. government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this work, or allow others to do so, for U.S. government purposes. This work made use of the EPIC facility of Northwestern University’s NUANCE Center, which has received support from the Soft and Hybrid Nanotechnology Experimental (SHyNE) Resource (NSF ECCS-1542205); the MRSEC IRG2 program (NSF DMR-1720139) at the Materials Research Center; the International Institute for Nanotechnology (IIN); the Keck Foundation; and the State of Illinois, through the IIN. Author contributions: K.Z., D.H.K., and B.S. conceived the project; D.K., D.H.K., and B.S. designed the experiments and characterizations; D.K. and D.H.K. prepared wide-bandgap perovskite samples and devices; H.J.J., D.K., and V.D. conducted TEM measurements and analysis; I.J.P., D.K., S.G.J., J.Y.K., and D.H.K. carried out the fabrication and characterization of 2T perovskite/Si tandem cells; B.W.L. conducted TRMC measurement; S.P.D. and J.T. conducted long-term stability measurements of wide-bandgap perovskite devices; C.X. conducted C-AFM measurements; D.K., F.Z., and S.G.J. conducted SEM measurements; D.K. and P.B. conducted XRD measurements; D.K., H.J.J., J.T., J.K., S.R.P., M.K., V.D., J.J.B., D.H.K., K.Z., and B.S. discussed the results and provided feedbacks for experiments; D.K., H.J.J., D.H.K., and B.S. wrote the manuscript; and all authors reviewed the manuscript and provided suggestions for edits. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Data and materials availability: All data are available in the main text or the supplementary materials.
Authors
Funding Information
National Science Foundation: NSF ECCS-1542205
National Science Foundation: NSF DMR-1720139
U.S. Department of Energy: DE-AC36-08GO28308
National Research Foundation of Korea: NRF-2018R1A5A1025594
National Research Foundation of Korea: 2018M3A7B4065662
National Research Foundation of Korea: 2019M3D1A2104109
National Research Foundation of Korea: 2020R1A2C3008111
Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning: 20183010014470
Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning: 20193091010310
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Article Usage
Altmetrics
Citations
Export citation
Select the format you want to export the citation of this publication.
Cited by
- Rethinking the A cation in halide perovskites, Science, 375, 6583, (2022)./doi/10.1126/science.abj1186
- Liquid medium annealing for fabricating durable perovskite solar cells with improved reproducibility, Science, 373, 6554, (561-567), (2021)./doi/10.1126/science.abh3884
- Surface plasmon enhanced single-mode lasing of all inorganic perovskite microdisks, Journal of Luminescence, 236, (118093), (2021).https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlumin.2021.118093
- Concurrent cationic and anionic perovskite defect passivation enables 27.4% perovskite/silicon tandems with suppression of halide segregation, Joule, 5, 6, (1566-1586), (2021).https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2021.05.013
- Perovskite solar cells with PCE over 19% fabricated under air environment by using a dye molecule additive, Sustainable Energy & Fuels, 5, 8, (2266-2272), (2021).https://doi.org/10.1039/D1SE00013F
- Advent of alkali metal doping: a roadmap for the evolution of perovskite solar cells, Chemical Society Reviews, 50, 4, (2696-2736), (2021).https://doi.org/10.1039/D0CS01316A
- Silicon heterojunction-based tandem solar cells: past, status, and future prospects, Nanophotonics, 10, 8, (2001-2022), (2021).https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2021-0034
- The Main Progress of Perovskite Solar Cells in 2020–2021, Nano-Micro Letters, 13, 1, (2021).https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-021-00672-w
- Surface Engineering of Ambient-Air-Processed Cesium Lead Triiodide Layers for Efficient Solar Cells, Joule, 5, 1, (183-196), (2021).https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2020.11.020
- An Electron Acceptor Analogue for Lowering Trap Density in Organic Solar Cells, Advanced Materials, 33, 14, (2008134), (2021).https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202008134
- See more
Loading...
View Options
Get Access
Log in to view the full text
AAAS login provides access to Science for AAAS Members, and access to other journals in the Science family to users who have purchased individual subscriptions.
- Become a AAAS Member
- Activate your AAAS ID
- Purchase Access to Other Journals in the Science Family
- Account Help
Log in via OpenAthens.
Log in via Shibboleth.
More options
Register for free to read this article
As a service to the community, this article is available for free. Login or register for free to read this article.
Buy a single issue of Science for just $15 USD.
View options
PDF format
Download this article as a PDF file
Download PDF





