Abstract
Photovoltaic-thermoelectric (PV-TE) hybrid systems offer a platform for enhancing the energy conversion efficiency of photovoltaic devices. However, they still suffer from energy losses and limited efficiency improvements owing to underutilized parasitic thermal energy and electrical parameters mismatches between PV and TE components. Here, we presented a comprehensive theoretical analysis and simulation based on a PV-TE Thermo-Electrical Coupling Model, predicting that the maximum efficiency of the system could reach 60.34% with state-of-the-art PV and commercial TE technologies. Following this model, we fabricated hybrid systems with organic and perovskite solar cells coupled with thermoelectric cells, achieving record-high efficiencies of 34.85% and 42.03% at 298 K, and 43.16% and 50.28% at 313 K, respectively, under AM 1.5 G illumination, with optimal thermal utilization and current matching between series-connected PV and TE modules. This work highlights the potential of PV-TE hybrid systems and could offer guidance for designing higher-efficiency systems, driving future advancements in photovoltaics.
Data availability
All data are available in the main text or the Supplementary Materials. Additional information can be obtained from corresponding authors upon request. Source data are provided with this paper.
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Acknowledgements
This work is supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2022YFB4200400) (Y.C.) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52025033, 52273248, 52303238, and 52473215) (Y.C., R.M., and D.Z.).
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Z.Y. and D.Z. contributed equally to this work. Y.C. and R.M. conceived and designed the project. Z.Y., D.Z., L.L., and Y.G. performed the device fabrication. Z.Y. and D.Z. carried out the performance measurements and simulation calculations. Y.C., R.M., Z.Y., D.Z., Y.L., and X.W. analyzed all experimental and simulated data. Z.Y. and D.Z. prepared the manuscript under the supervision of Y.C. and R.M. All the authors contributed to the revision and comments to the manuscript.
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Yin, Z., Zhang, D., Li, L. et al. Solution-processed photovoltaic and thermoelectric hybrid systems with efficiency exceeding 50%. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-71389-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-71389-w
