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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.
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Supplementary Material

Summary

Materials and Methods
Figs. S1 to S16
Table S1
References (3238)

Resources

File (aba3433_kim_sm.pdf)

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Science
Volume 368 | Issue 6487
10 April 2020

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Received: 27 November 2019
Accepted: 12 March 2020
Published in print: 10 April 2020

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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

Affiliations

Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401, USA.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401, USA.
Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA.
Chuanxiao Xiao
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401, USA.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401, USA.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea.
Su Geun Ji
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401, USA.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea.
Seok Beom Kang
Department of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials Engineering, Sejong University, Seoul 05006, Republic of Korea.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401, USA.
Department of Physics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA.
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401, USA.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401, USA.
Department of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials Engineering, Sejong University, Seoul 05006, Republic of Korea.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea.

Funding Information

National Science Foundation: NSF ECCS-1542205
U.S. Department of Energy: DE-AC36-08GO28308

Notes

*
These authors contributed equally to this work.
†Corresponding author. Email: [email protected] (J.Y.K.); [email protected] (K.Z.); [email protected] (D.H.K.); [email protected] (B.S.)

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