Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Advertisement

Nature Communications
  • View all journals
  • Search
  • My Account Login
  • Content Explore content
  • About the journal
  • Publish with us
  • Sign up for alerts
  • RSS feed
  1. nature
  2. nature communications
  3. articles
  4. article
Pathway-priming of intermediate phases in FACs-based wide-bandgap perovskites for Si tandem solar cells
Download PDF
Download PDF
  • Article
  • Open access
  • Published: 21 April 2026

Pathway-priming of intermediate phases in FACs-based wide-bandgap perovskites for Si tandem solar cells

  • Nuanshan Huang1,
  • Jun Fang1,
  • Xin Wang1,
  • Sixia Hu2,
  • Sibo Li1,
  • Guanshui Xie1,
  • Lin Gan1,
  • Haichen Peng1,
  • Xiao Lin1,
  • Xiaoshan Zhang3,
  • Fengde Liu3,
  • Ziqing Yang3,
  • Peng Zhao3,
  • Pengfei Huang3,
  • Wenjia Li1 &
  • …
  • Longbin Qiu  ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7696-49011 

Nature Communications (2026) Cite this article

  • 2200 Accesses

  • Metrics details

We are providing an unedited version of this manuscript to give early access to its findings. Before final publication, the manuscript will undergo further editing. Please note there may be errors present which affect the content, and all legal disclaimers apply.

Subjects

  • Photovoltaics
  • Solar cells

Abstract

Wide-bandgap (WBG) perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have emerged as promising candidates for tandem applications, despite potential instability induced by halogen components. Formamidinium-cesium (FACs)-based perovskites represent as an intrinsically stable WBG system due to their low bromine-to-lead ratio and the absence of thermally unstable methylammonium. However, the performance of FACs-based WBG perovskites is highly dependent on achieving precise control over the formation dynamics. Here, we employ in-situ characterization to reveal that the key to this control lies in the evolution of the intermediate phase and propose a pathway-priming strategy. By strategically guiding the early formation of the CsPbX3 intermediate phases, the strategy in turn templates and accelerates the subsequent transformation to the desired α-phase. The primed pathway yields a more uniform and complete phase transition, leading to enhanced film homogeneity. As a result, we demonstrate highly efficient 1.67 eV WBG PSCs with an efficiency exceeding 23%, along with excellent long-term operating stability maintaining 90% initial performance for 800 hours under continuous light stress. Furthermore, semitransparent WBG PSC achieve efficiencies of 20.91% (0.1 cm2) and 19.67% (1.0 cm2), corresponding to a four-terminal perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells with an efficiency of 31.04% (1.0 cm2), highlighting their potential for high-performance tandem photovoltaics.

Similar content being viewed by others

Uniform phase distribution of wide bandgap perovskite for high-performance perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells

Article Open access 12 December 2025

Defect engineering in wide-bandgap perovskites for efficient perovskite–silicon tandem solar cells

Article 18 July 2022

Surface reconstruction of wide-bandgap perovskites enables efficient perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells

Article Open access 04 December 2024

Data availability

All data supporting the results of this study are provided in this article and its supplementary information. Any other information can be requested from the corresponding author. Source data are provided with this paper.

References

  1. De Wolf, S. et al. Organometallic Halide Perovskites: Sharp Optical Absorption Edge and Its Relation to Photovoltaic Performance. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 5, 1035–1039 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Unger, E. L. et al. Correction: Roadmap and roadblocks for the band gap tunability of metal halide perovskites. J. Mater. Chem. A 5, 15983–15983 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Leijtens, T., Bush, K. A., Prasanna, R. & McGehee, M. D. Opportunities and challenges for tandem solar cells using metal halide perovskite semiconductors. Nat. Energy 3, 828–838 (2018).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Aydin, E. et al. Enhanced optoelectronic coupling for perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells. Nature 623, 732–738 (2023).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Chin, X. Y. et al. Interface passivation for 31.25%-efficient perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells. Science 381, 59 (2023).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Raza, E. & Ahmad, Z. Review on two-terminal and four-terminal crystalline-silicon/perovskite tandem solar cells; progress, challenges, and future perspectives. Energy Rep 8, 5820–5851 (2022).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Cui, X. et al. Research progress of wide bandgap perovskite materials and solar cells. Acta Physica Sinica 69, 207401 (2020).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Xu, F., Zhang, M., Li, Z., Yang, X. & Zhu, R. Challenges and perspectives toward future wide-bandgap mixed-halide perovskite photovoltaics. Adv. Energy Mater. 13, 2203911 (2023).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Bush, K. A. et al. Compositional engineering for efficient wide band gap perovskites with improved stability to photoinduced phase segregation. ACS Energy Lett. 3, 428–435 (2018).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Bu, T. et al. Lead halide–templated crystallization of methylamine-free perovskite for efficient photovoltaic modules. Science 372, 1327 (2021).

    Google Scholar 

  11. Xiang, W. et al. Intermediate phase engineering of halide perovskites for photovoltaics. Joule 6, 315–339 (2022).

    Google Scholar 

  12. Zhu, Y. et al. Intermediate-phase homogenization through intermolecular interactions toward. Adv. Energy Mater. 15, 2500536 (2025).

    Google Scholar 

  13. Gao, Z. et al. Eutectic molecule ligand stabilizes photoactive black phase perovskite. Nat. Photonics 19, 258–263 (2025).

    Google Scholar 

  14. Liu, M. et al. Efficient and stable p–i–n perovskite solar cells enabled by in situ functional group conversion. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 146, 32105–32116 (2024).

    Google Scholar 

  15. Wan, Z. et al. Efficient perovskite solar modules with an ultra-long processing window enabled by cooling stabilized intermediate phases. Energy Environ. Sci. 17, 6302–6313 (2024).

    Google Scholar 

  16. Chen, M. et al. “Freezing” intermediate phases for efficient and stable FAPbI3 perovskite solar cells. Energy Environ. Sci. 17, 3375–3383 (2024).

    Google Scholar 

  17. Li, Z. et al. Intermediates transformation for efficient perovskite solar cells. J. Energy Chem. 52, 102–114 (2021).

    Google Scholar 

  18. Park, J. et al. Controlled growth of perovskite layers with volatile alkylammonium chlorides. Nature 616, 724–730 (2023).

    Google Scholar 

  19. Li, Z. et al. Stabilizing perovskite structures by tuning tolerance factor: formation of formamidinium and cesium lead iodide solid-state alloys. Chem. Mater. 28, 284–292 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  20. Liang, L. et al. The humidity-insensitive fabrication of efficient CsPbI3 solar cells in ambient air. J. Mater. Chem. A 7, 26776–26784 (2019).

    Google Scholar 

  21. Gao, L. & Yang, G. Organic-inorganic halide perovskites: from crystallization of polycrystalline films to solar cell applications. Solar RRL 4, 1900200 (2019).

    Google Scholar 

  22. Ma, J. et al. Unraveling the impact of halide mixing on crystallization and phase evolution in cspbx3 perovskite solar cells. Matter 4, 313–327 (2021).

    Google Scholar 

  23. Szostak, R. et al. In situ and operando characterizations of metal halide perovskite and solar cells: insights from lab-sized devices to upscaling processes. Chem. Rev. 123, 3160–3236 (2023).

    Google Scholar 

  24. Guo, H. et al. Intermolecular interactions triggered crystallization phase transition regulation for efficient and stable perovskite photovoltaics. Energy Environ. Sci. 18, 7114–7123 (2025).

    Google Scholar 

  25. Zhou, Y. et al. Enhanced incorporation of guanidinium in formamidinium-based perovskites for efficient and stable photovoltaics: the role of Cs and Br. Adv. Funct. Mater. 29, 1905739 (2019).

    Google Scholar 

  26. Yang, W. et al. Visualizing interfacial energy offset and defects in efficient 2d/3d heterojunction perovskite solar cells and modules. Adv. Mater. 35, 2302071 (2023).

    Google Scholar 

  27. Yang, Y. et al. Design of surface termination for high-performance perovskite solar cells. J. Mater. Chem. A 9, 23597–23606 (2021).

    Google Scholar 

  28. Xu, H. et al. Guanidinium-assisted crystallization modulation and reduction of open-circuit voltage deficit for efficient planar FAPbBr3 perovskite solar cells. Chem. Eng. J. 437, 135181 (2022).

    Google Scholar 

  29. Feng, Z. et al. Buried interface modulation using self-assembled monolayer and ionic liquid hybrids for high-performance perovskite and perovskite/cuingase2 tandem photovoltaics. Adv. Mater. 37, 2412692 (2025).

    Google Scholar 

  30. Zhang, Z. et al. Suppression of phase segregation in wide-bandgap perovskites with thiocyanate ions for perovskite/organic tandems with 25.06% efficiency. Nat. Energy 9, 592–601 (2024).

    Google Scholar 

  31. Wu, P. et al. In situ formation of high-pka cations for perovskite solar cells. ACS Energy Lett 9, 4526–4533 (2024).

    Google Scholar 

  32. Wang, H. et al. In situ dual-interface passivation strategy enables the efficiency of formamidinium perovskite solar cells over 25%. Adv. Mater. 36, 2307855 (2023).

    Google Scholar 

  33. Wu, Z. et al. Enhancing photovoltaically preferred orientation in wide-bandgap perovskite for efficient all-perovskite tandem solar cells. Adv. Mater. 37, 2412943 (2025).

    Google Scholar 

  34. Gao, Y. et al. Elimination of unstable residual lead iodide near the buried interface for the stability improvement of perovskite solar cells. Energy Environ. Sci. 16, 2295–2303 (2023).

    Google Scholar 

  35. Almora, O. et al. Quantifying the Absorption Onset in the Quantum Efficiency of Emerging Photovoltaic Devices. Adv. Energy Mater. 11, 2100022 (2021).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52576215), National Key Research and Development Program of China (2025YFB4007600), Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (2025A1515011993, 2024B1515120043), Department of Science and Technology of Guangdong Province (2025A0505080001), Guangdong Grants (2021ZT09C064, 2021QN02L138), Guangdong Provincial University Science and Technology Program (2025KTSCX114), and High level of special funds (G03034K001). The authors thank the technical support from the SUSTech Core Research Facilities. The authors thank the staff from Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF) at BL02U2.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, SUSTech Energy Institute for Carbon Neutrality, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China

    Nuanshan Huang, Jun Fang, Xin Wang, Sibo Li, Guanshui Xie, Lin Gan, Haichen Peng, Xiao Lin, Wenjia Li & Longbin Qiu

  2. Sustech Core Research Facilities, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China

    Sixia Hu

  3. PetroChina Shenzhen New Energy Research Institute Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China

    Xiaoshan Zhang, Fengde Liu, Ziqing Yang, Peng Zhao & Pengfei Huang

Authors
  1. Nuanshan Huang
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jun Fang
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Xin Wang
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Sixia Hu
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Sibo Li
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Guanshui Xie
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Lin Gan
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Haichen Peng
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Xiao Lin
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Xiaoshan Zhang
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Fengde Liu
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Ziqing Yang
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  13. Peng Zhao
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  14. Pengfei Huang
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  15. Wenjia Li
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  16. Longbin Qiu
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

L.Q., W.L. and P.H. supervised this work. N.H. conceived the ideas and designed the experiments. J.F. provided the GIWAXS measurements. X.W. participated in the fabrication of the semi-transparent PSCs. S.H. and S.L. conducted the GIXRD measurements. G.X. and L.G. provided valuable suggestions for the FTIR and NMR tests. H.P. and X.L. provided valuable suggestions for the experiments. X.Z., F.L., Z.Y. and P.Z. participated in the fabrication of the 4 T perovskite/Si TSCs. N.H. wrote the manuscript, and all authors reviewed the paper.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Pengfei Huang, Wenjia Li or Longbin Qiu.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Peer review

Peer review information

Nature Communications thanks Hairen Tan, and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. A peer review file is available.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information (download PDF )

Reporting Summary (download PDF )

Transparent Peer Review file (download PDF )

Source data

Source data (download XLS )

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Huang, N., Fang, J., Wang, X. et al. Pathway-priming of intermediate phases in FACs-based wide-bandgap perovskites for Si tandem solar cells. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-72094-4

Download citation

  • Received: 16 December 2025

  • Accepted: 08 April 2026

  • Published: 21 April 2026

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-72094-4

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

Download PDF

Advertisement

Explore content

  • Research articles
  • Reviews & Analysis
  • News & Comment
  • Videos
  • Collections
  • Subjects
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on X
  • Sign up for alerts
  • RSS feed

About the journal

  • Aims & Scope
  • Editors
  • Journal Information
  • Open Access Fees and Funding
  • Calls for Papers
  • Editorial Values Statement
  • Journal Metrics
  • Editors' Highlights
  • Contact
  • Editorial policies
  • Top Articles

Publish with us

  • For authors
  • For Reviewers
  • Language editing services
  • Open access funding
  • Submit manuscript

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

  • Explore articles by subject
  • Find a job
  • Guide to authors
  • Editorial policies

Nature Communications (Nat Commun)

ISSN 2041-1723 (online)

nature.com footer links

About Nature Portfolio

  • About us
  • Press releases
  • Press office
  • Contact us

Discover content

  • Journals A-Z
  • Articles by subject
  • protocols.io
  • Nature Index

Publishing policies

  • Nature portfolio policies
  • Open access

Author & Researcher services

  • Reprints & permissions
  • Research data
  • Language editing
  • Scientific editing
  • Nature Masterclasses
  • Research Solutions

Libraries & institutions

  • Librarian service & tools
  • Librarian portal
  • Open research
  • Recommend to library

Advertising & partnerships

  • Advertising
  • Partnerships & Services
  • Media kits
  • Branded content

Professional development

  • Nature Awards
  • Nature Careers
  • Nature Conferences

Regional websites

  • Nature Africa
  • Nature China
  • Nature India
  • Nature Japan
  • Nature Middle East
  • Privacy Policy
  • Use of cookies
  • Legal notice
  • Accessibility statement
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Your US state privacy rights
Springer Nature

© 2026 Springer Nature Limited

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing