Triple-junction solar cells with cyanate in ultrawide-bandgap perovskites.

Liu, Shunchang; Lu, Yue; Yu, Cao; Li, Jia; Luo, Ran; Guo, Renjun; Liang, Haoming; Jia, Xiangkun et al. · Nature · 2024

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Perovskite bandgap tuning without quality loss makes perovskites unique among solar absorbers, offering promising avenues for tandem solar cells<sup>1,2</sup>. However, minimizing the voltage loss when their bandgap is increased to above 1.90 eV for triple-junction tandem use is challenging<sup>3-5</sup>. Here we present a previously unknown pseudohalide, cyanate (OCN<sup>-</sup>), with a comparable effective ionic radius (1.97 Å) to bromide (1.95 Å) as a bromide substitute. Electron microscopy and X-ray scattering confirm OCN incorporation into the perovskite lattice. This contributes to notable lattice distortion, ranging from 90.5° to 96.6°, a uniform iodide-bromide distribution and consistent microstrain. Owing to these effects, OCN-based perovskite exhibits enhanced defect formation energy and substantially decreased non-radiative recombination. We achieved an inverted perovskite (1.93 eV) single-junction device with an open-circuit voltage (V<sub>OC</sub>) of 1.422 V, a V<sub>OC</sub> × FF (fill factor) product exceeding 80% of the Shockley-Queisser limit and stable performance under maximum power point tracking, culminating in a 27.62% efficiency (27.10% certified efficiency) perovskite-perovskite-silicon triple-junction solar cell with 1 cm<sup>2</sup> aperture area.