Recent work reports 28%-efficient Perovskite-peroskite-silicon based Triple-Junction Solar Cells in Nature Materials

September 23, 2025

Perovskite/perovskite/silicon triple-junction solar cells promise high power output at low cost, but their development has been limited by the inherent phase instability of perovskite materials. The middle layer (~1.50 eV FAPbI₃) degrades during fabrication, while the bromide-rich top layer (~2.0 eV) suffers from light-induced phase segregation.

In this study, a collaborative effort led by researchers including Dr. Erkan Aydin addresses these challenges by introducing ammonium propionic acid, which stabilizes both perovskite layers. This approach increases the phase transition energy barrier and reduces vacancy defects through additional lattice cation bonding.

The resulting devices demonstrate 28.7 % power conversion efficiency on a 1 cm² aperture, with substantially improved reproducibility, marking a significant step toward high-performance, cost-effective triple-junction photovoltaics.

This work originated from collaborations during the KAUST period and represents years of development and refinement before publication.

Reference: F. Xu, et al., Nature Materials (2025).