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Efficient and luminescent perovskite solar cells using defect-suppressed SnO2 via excess ligand strategy

Nature Energy volume 10, pages 774–784 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

The deposition of electron-transport layers using chemical bath deposition (CBD) enables high efficiency in perovskite solar cells. However, the conventional CBD methods require time to achieve uniform films on large substrates and often fail to deposit high-quality films due to incomplete surface coverage and oxidation. Here we show an excess ligand strategy based on the CBD of tin oxide (SnO2), suppressing the cluster-by-cluster pathway while facilitating the ion-by-ion pathway to create uniform films. Our approach enables rapid synthesis of high-quality SnO2 electron-transport layers with reduced defect densities. The resulting SnO2 thin films exhibit superior optoelectronic properties, including a low surface-recombination velocity (5.5 cm s−1) and a high electroluminescence efficiency of 24.8%. These improvements result in a high power-conversion efficiency of 26.4% for perovskite solar cells, an efficiency of 23% for perovskite modules and an efficiency of 23.1% for carbon-based perovskite cells. This highlights its potential for the low-cost, large-scale production of efficient solar devices.

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Fig. 1: Characterization of SnO2 synthesized via the excess ligand strategy.
Fig. 2: Influence of excess ligands on defects and the proposed synthesis mechanism.
Fig. 3: Spectroscopic characterization of the SnO2/perovskite bilayer.
Fig. 4: Device performance and stability.

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Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available within the Article and its Supplementary Information.

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Acknowledgements

S.S.S acknowledges support from the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (RS-2024-00345042 and RS-2024-00445116). S.I.S acknowledges support from the Basic Science Research Program (RS-2018-NR030954) through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (MSIP). We thank H.-E. Nam for her assistance in creating Fig. 1a,b.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Gabkyung Seo, Jason J. Yoo, Seongsik Nam, Da Seul Lee.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. SKKU Advanced Institute of Nanotechnology (SAINT), Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Republic of Korea

    Gabkyung Seo, Seongsik Nam, Da Seul Lee, Shanshan Gao, Bo Kyung Kim, Ji-Sang Park & Seong Sik Shin

  2. Department of Energy Science, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Republic of Korea

    Gabkyung Seo

  3. Division of Advanced Materials, Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, Daejeon, Republic of Korea

    Jason J. Yoo, Sae Jin Sung, Bong Joo Kang & Seong Sik Shin

  4. Department of Nano Science and Technology, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Republic of Korea

    Seongsik Nam, Da Seul Lee, Shanshan Gao, Bo Kyung Kim, Ji-Sang Park & Seong Sik Shin

  5. Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Dane W. deQuilettes

  6. Department of Physics, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Republic of Korea

    Junho Park & Fabian Rotermund

  7. Department of Nano Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Republic of Korea

    Ji-Sang Park & Seong Sik Shin

  8. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Ajou University, Suwon, Republic of Korea

    In Sun Cho

  9. Department of Energy Systems Research, Ajou University, Suwon, Republic of Korea

    In Sun Cho

  10. Department of Energy and Chemical Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan, Republic of Korea

    Sang Il Seok

  11. SKKU Institute of Energy Science & Technology (SIEST), Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Republic of Korea

    Seong Sik Shin

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  1. Gabkyung Seo
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Contributions

G.S. and S.S.S. conceived and designed the experiment. G.S. and S.S.S. conducted the synthesis and the analysis of the SnO2 film. J.J.Y. and D.W.D. performed the optical characterization and data analysis of the perovskite films. G.S., S.N., S.J.S., B.K.K. and S.G. conducted the fabrication of perovskite solar cells and their certification. S.N. and D.S.L. fabricated mini-modules and revised the paper. J.J.Y. and S.N. conducted the electroluminescence measurements with supervision. J.P. and B.J.K. conducted the transient absorption measurement with supervision from F.R. J.-S.P. performed density function theory calculation. J.J.Y. and G.S. wrote the first draft of the manuscript, and all authors contributed feedback and comments. I.S.C., S.I.S. and S.S.S. reviewed and revised the paper. S.I.S. and S.S.S. directed and supervised the research.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Sang Il Seok or Seong Sik Shin.

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Competing interests

D.W.D. is a co-founder of Optigon Inc., a US company developing metrology tools for the photovoltaics industry. The other authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Energy thanks Jae-Wook Kang, Yixin Zhao and the other, anonymous, reviewer for their contribution to the peer review of this work

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Supplementary Figs. 1–22, Tables 1–9 and references.

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Statistical supplementary data for Supplementary Fig. 14.

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Seo, G., Yoo, J.J., Nam, S. et al. Efficient and luminescent perovskite solar cells using defect-suppressed SnO2 via excess ligand strategy. Nat Energy 10, 774–784 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-025-01781-1

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