Localized 2D/3D heterojunction enhances photovoltage for perovskite-organic tandem solar cells

Mingqian CHEN; Wenlin JIANG; Deng WANG; Lingchen KONG; Yanxun LI; Kai-Kai LIU; Yunfan WANG; Qian LI; Zhenhuang SU; Xiaofeng HUANG; Xue ZHENG; Jie ZHANG; Xi CHEN; Baomin XU; Sai-Wing TSANG; Shengfan WU; Alex K.-Y. JEN

doi:10.1038/s41467-026-68904-4

Localized 2D/3D heterojunction enhances photovoltage for perovskite-organic tandem solar cells

Mingqian CHEN
, Wenlin JIANG
, Deng WANG
, Lingchen KONG
, Yanxun LI
, Kai-Kai LIU
, Yunfan WANG
, Qian LI
, Zhenhuang SU
, Xiaofeng HUANG
, Xue ZHENG
, Jie ZHANG
, Xi CHEN
, Baomin XU
, Sai-Wing TSANG
, Shengfan WU^*
, Alex K.-Y. JEN^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Wu Jieh Yee School of Interdisciplinary Studies

Research output: Journal Publications › Journal Article (refereed) › peer-review

Abstract

Wide-bandgap perovskite solar cells are essential for constructing multi-junction solar cells; nevertheless, their achievable photovoltage is often limited by non-radiative recombination losses caused by defect states, mismatched energy levels, and poor contact at interfaces, resulting in a photovoltage plateau beyond 1.68 eV. Here, we explore intricate Lewis acid-base interactions between hole-selective self-assembled monolayer and ammonium ligands to engineer a localized 2D/3D perovskite heterojunction at the buried interface. This structure not only help reduce defect density but also facilitate charge extraction and templated perovskite crystallization without compromising the bulk optoelectrical properties of 3D perovskite. These resulted in 1.30, 1.38, and 1.42 V photovoltages for 1.68, 1.79, and 1.85 eV bandgap perovskite solar cells, respectively, all exceeding 90% of their thermodynamic limits. We also demonstrate high-efficiency monolithic tandem solar cells by integrating the optimized wide-bandgap perovskite solar cell with an organic subcell to achieve a PCE of 27.11% (certified 26.3%).

Original language	English
Journal	Nature Communications
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-68904-4
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 28 Jan 2026

Funding

A. K.-Y. J. thanks the sponsorship of the Lee Shau-Kee Chair Professor (Materials Science), and the support from the APRC Grant of the City University of Hong Kong (9380086, 9610508, 9610419, 9610440, and 9610492), the TCFS Grants (GHP/121/22SZ), MHKJFS Grant (MHP/054/23) and MRP Grant (MRP/040/21X) from the Innovation and Technology Commission of Hong Kong, the GRF grants (11307621, 11316422, 11308625) and CRS grants (CRS_CityU104/23, CRS_HKUST203/23) from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, This work was partially financially supported by City University of Hong Kong (9610739) for the project “Fostering Innovation for Resilience and Sustainable Transformation,” officially endorsed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization under the International Decade of Sciences for Sustainable Development (2024–2033). S.F.W. acknowledges the financial support from the Start-up Fund and Faculty Research Grant (SISFRG2605) from Lingnan University, the Early Career Scheme (ECS, 23300325) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China/Research Grants Council Joint Research Scheme (NSFC/RGC JRS, N_LU308/25) from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, and the Young Scientists Fund (Type C, 22509080) from the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Keywords

perovskite
photovoltage plateau
buried interface
heterojunction
tandem solar cells

Access to Document

10.1038/s41467-026-68904-4Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-68904-4

Modulating Halide Evolution for Overcoming Instability and Photovoltage Plateau in Perovskite Photovoltaic Devices ( 調控鹵化物演變以克服鈣鈦礦光伏器件的不穩定性及光電壓平台)
WU, S. (PI)
Research Grants Council (Hong Kong, China)
1/01/26 → 31/12/28
Project: Grant Research
Study of Operational Stability in Perovskite-Silicon Tandem Solar Cells (鈣鈦礦/晶硅疊層太陽電池的運行穩定性研究)
WU, S. (PI), JEN, K. Y. (CoI), ZHANG, H. (CoPI) & YANG, Y. (CoI)
Research Grants Council (Hong Kong, China)
1/01/26 → 31/12/29
Project: Grant Research
Study of localized 2D/3D heterojunction for enhanced photovoltage in wide-bandgap perovskite solar cells and underlying mechanisms 限域二维/三维异质结提升宽带隙钙钛矿太阳能电池光电压及机理研究
WU, S. (PI)
National Natural Science Foundation of China
1/01/26 → 31/12/28
Project: Grant Research

Cite this

CHEN, M., JIANG, W., WANG, D., KONG, L., LI, Y., LIU, K.-K., WANG, Y., LI, Q., SU, Z., HUANG, X., ZHENG, X., ZHANG, J., CHEN, X., XU, B., TSANG, S.-W., WU, S., & JEN, A. K.-Y. (2026). Localized 2D/3D heterojunction enhances photovoltage for perovskite-organic tandem solar cells. Nature Communications. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-68904-4

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title = "Localized 2D/3D heterojunction enhances photovoltage for perovskite-organic tandem solar cells",

abstract = "Wide-bandgap perovskite solar cells are essential for constructing multi-junction solar cells; nevertheless, their achievable photovoltage is often limited by non-radiative recombination losses caused by defect states, mismatched energy levels, and poor contact at interfaces, resulting in a photovoltage plateau beyond 1.68 eV. Here, we explore intricate Lewis acid-base interactions between hole-selective self-assembled monolayer and ammonium ligands to engineer a localized 2D/3D perovskite heterojunction at the buried interface. This structure not only help reduce defect density but also facilitate charge extraction and templated perovskite crystallization without compromising the bulk optoelectrical properties of 3D perovskite. These resulted in 1.30, 1.38, and 1.42 V photovoltages for 1.68, 1.79, and 1.85 eV bandgap perovskite solar cells, respectively, all exceeding 90\% of their thermodynamic limits. We also demonstrate high-efficiency monolithic tandem solar cells by integrating the optimized wide-bandgap perovskite solar cell with an organic subcell to achieve a PCE of 27.11\% (certified 26.3\%).",

keywords = "perovskite, photovoltage plateau, buried interface, heterojunction, tandem solar cells",

author = "Mingqian CHEN and Wenlin JIANG and Deng WANG and Lingchen KONG and Yanxun LI and Kai-Kai LIU and Yunfan WANG and Qian LI and Zhenhuang SU and Xiaofeng HUANG and Xue ZHENG and Jie ZHANG and Xi CHEN and Baomin XU and Sai-Wing TSANG and Shengfan WU and JEN, \{Alex K.-Y.\}",

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doi = "10.1038/s41467-026-68904-4",

language = "English",

journal = "Nature Communications",

issn = "2041-1723",

publisher = "Nature Research",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Localized 2D/3D heterojunction enhances photovoltage for perovskite-organic tandem solar cells

AU - CHEN, Mingqian

AU - JIANG, Wenlin

AU - WANG, Deng

AU - KONG, Lingchen

AU - LI, Yanxun

AU - LIU, Kai-Kai

AU - WANG, Yunfan

AU - LI, Qian

AU - SU, Zhenhuang

AU - HUANG, Xiaofeng

AU - ZHENG, Xue

AU - ZHANG, Jie

AU - CHEN, Xi

AU - XU, Baomin

AU - TSANG, Sai-Wing

AU - WU, Shengfan

AU - JEN, Alex K.-Y.

PY - 2026/1/28

Y1 - 2026/1/28

N2 - Wide-bandgap perovskite solar cells are essential for constructing multi-junction solar cells; nevertheless, their achievable photovoltage is often limited by non-radiative recombination losses caused by defect states, mismatched energy levels, and poor contact at interfaces, resulting in a photovoltage plateau beyond 1.68 eV. Here, we explore intricate Lewis acid-base interactions between hole-selective self-assembled monolayer and ammonium ligands to engineer a localized 2D/3D perovskite heterojunction at the buried interface. This structure not only help reduce defect density but also facilitate charge extraction and templated perovskite crystallization without compromising the bulk optoelectrical properties of 3D perovskite. These resulted in 1.30, 1.38, and 1.42 V photovoltages for 1.68, 1.79, and 1.85 eV bandgap perovskite solar cells, respectively, all exceeding 90% of their thermodynamic limits. We also demonstrate high-efficiency monolithic tandem solar cells by integrating the optimized wide-bandgap perovskite solar cell with an organic subcell to achieve a PCE of 27.11% (certified 26.3%).

AB - Wide-bandgap perovskite solar cells are essential for constructing multi-junction solar cells; nevertheless, their achievable photovoltage is often limited by non-radiative recombination losses caused by defect states, mismatched energy levels, and poor contact at interfaces, resulting in a photovoltage plateau beyond 1.68 eV. Here, we explore intricate Lewis acid-base interactions between hole-selective self-assembled monolayer and ammonium ligands to engineer a localized 2D/3D perovskite heterojunction at the buried interface. This structure not only help reduce defect density but also facilitate charge extraction and templated perovskite crystallization without compromising the bulk optoelectrical properties of 3D perovskite. These resulted in 1.30, 1.38, and 1.42 V photovoltages for 1.68, 1.79, and 1.85 eV bandgap perovskite solar cells, respectively, all exceeding 90% of their thermodynamic limits. We also demonstrate high-efficiency monolithic tandem solar cells by integrating the optimized wide-bandgap perovskite solar cell with an organic subcell to achieve a PCE of 27.11% (certified 26.3%).

KW - perovskite

KW - photovoltage plateau

KW - buried interface

KW - heterojunction

KW - tandem solar cells

U2 - 10.1038/s41467-026-68904-4

DO - 10.1038/s41467-026-68904-4

M3 - Journal Article (refereed)

C2 - 41605954

SN - 2041-1723

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

ER -

Localized 2D/3D heterojunction enhances photovoltage for perovskite-organic tandem solar cells

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

Access to Document

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Projects

Modulating Halide Evolution for Overcoming Instability and Photovoltage Plateau in Perovskite Photovoltaic Devices ( 調控鹵化物演變以克服鈣鈦礦光伏器件的不穩定性及光電壓平台)

Study of Operational Stability in Perovskite-Silicon Tandem Solar Cells (鈣鈦礦/晶硅疊層太陽電池的運行穩定性研究)

Study of localized 2D/3D heterojunction for enhanced photovoltage in wide-bandgap perovskite solar cells and underlying mechanisms 限域二维/三维异质结提升宽带隙钙钛矿太阳能电池光电压及机理研究

Cite this