Chinese researchers design fresh strategy to boost solar cell performance

BEIJING -- A team of Chinese researchers has developed a new passivation strategy that significantly improves both the efficiency and operational stability of perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells, according to a recent research article published in the journal Matter.

Perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells combine a top perovskite layer, which efficiently converts sunlight into electricity, with a silicon bottom substrate. These solar cells hold great potential for lightweight, high-efficiency applications in the photovoltaic field.

However, the pyramid-textured surface of industrial silicon substrates makes it difficult to deposit a uniform perovskite top layer, which often leads to localized electrical leakage and thus limits the commercial prospects of these tandem cells.

The researchers from Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering (NIMTE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with Soochow University and Taizhou University, both in East China's Jiangsu province, have designed the innovative peak-selective passivation strategy to suppress electrical leakage.

Their method uses polystyrene nanospheres as a template to precisely deposit a thin insulating layer of aluminum oxide onto the pyramid peaks, thereby blocking leakage pathways.

The team achieved an impressive power conversion efficiency of around 33 percent, in a perovskite/silicon tandem solar cell with an active area of approximately one square centimeter.

The device also retained about 90 percent of its initial efficiency after 1,000 hours of continuous operation, demonstrating excellent long-term stability.

"This strategy is simple and compatible with existing industrial production lines, bringing perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells a step closer to commercial applications," noted Ye Jichun, a corresponding author of the study.