Fully Textured, Production-Line Compatible Monolithic Perovskite/Silicon Tandem Solar Cells Approaching 29% Efficiency

Adv Mater. 2022 Oct;34(40):e2206193. doi: 10.1002/adma.202206193. Epub 2022 Sep 4.

Abstract

Perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells are promising avenues for achieving high-performance photovoltaics with low costs. However, the highest certified efficiency of perovskite/silicon tandem devices based on economically matured silicon heterojunction technology (SHJ) with fully textured wafer is only 25.2% due to incompatibility between the limitation of fabrication technology which is not compatible with the production-line silicon wafer. Here, a molecular-level nanotechnology is developed by designing NiOx /2PACz ([2-(9H-carbazol-9-yl) ethyl]phosphonic acid) as an ultrathin hybrid hole transport layer (HTL) above indium tin oxide (ITO) recombination junction, to serve as a vital pivot for achieving a conformal deposition of high-quality perovskite layer on top. The NiOx interlayer facilitates a uniform self-assembly of 2PACz molecules onto the fully textured surface, thus avoiding direct contact between ITO and perovskite top-cell for a minimal shunt loss. As a result of such interfacial engineering, the fully textured perovskite/silicon tandem cells obtain a certified efficiency of 28.84% on a 1.2-cm2 masked area, which is the highest performance to date based on the fully textured, production-line compatible SHJ. This work advances commercially promising photovoltaics with high performance and low costs by adopting a meticulously designed HTL/perovskite interface.

Keywords: conformal deposition; fully textured; perovskite solar cells; perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells; production-line compatible.