Abstract
Flexible perovskite solar cells offer a platform for lightweight, low-cost and conformable energy solutions. However, their power conversion efficiency (PCE) lags their rigid counterparts, particularly in large-area modules owing to challenges in achieving uniform, high-quality perovskite films on flexible substrates. Here we introduce a scalable fabrication strategy based on retreating the wet perovskite films with an in situ additive coating under continuous gas quenching. This method enables dynamic additive modulation during crystallization, unlocking interfacial and bulk film control that is otherwise inaccessible in after-coating treatments or ink modification strategies. This method yields 30 × 40 cm2 wide-bandgap perovskite films on polyethylene terephthalate substrate fabricated under ambient conditions with exceptional crystallinity, low-trap-density and void-free buried interfaces. As a result, we achieve a PCE of 27.5% for a flexible all-perovskite tandem solar cell (area 0.049 cm2) and a certified 23.0% for a large flexible module (area 20.26 cm2) with a geometric fill factor of 95.8%. We also demonstrate industrial scalability by slot-die coating a flexible wide-bandgap perovskite module with an aperture area of ~804 cm2 under ambient conditions. These modules retain 97.2% of their initial PCE after 10,000 bending cycles at a 10 mm radius (1% strain) and withstand thermal cycling (−40 °C ↔ 85 °C) and continuous 1-sun illumination. This Article narrows the efficiency gap between flexible and rigid perovskite tandems and establishes a practical route towards scalable, high-performance flexible photovoltaics.
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Data availability
The main data supporting the findings of this study are available within this Article and its Supplementary Information. Additional data are available from the corresponding author on request. Source data are provided with this paper.
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Acknowledgements
This work was financially supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (grant number 2022YFB4200300), National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (grant number T2325016), National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number U21A2076), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (grant numbers 0213/14380206, 0205/14380252 and 0213/14380236), Frontiers Science Center for Critical Earth Material Cycling Fund (grant number DLTD210) and Program for Innovative Talents and Entrepreneur in Jiangsu. R.Lin acknowledges the support of National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 62305150). L.L. acknowledges the support of Frontiers Science Center for Critical Earth Material Cycling Fund (grant number 2024ZD06). W.K., Y.Z., and H.T. acknowledge the supports of Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (grant numbers BK20230790, BK20232022, BK20241209, BE2022021 and BE2022026). Y.Z. acknowledges the support of Postdoctoral Fellowship Program of China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (grant number GZC20231092). K.X. acknowledges the supports of China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (grant number 2023M731579) and Postdoctoral Innovative Talents Support Project from the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (grant number BX20230157). H.G. acknowledges the Postdoctoral Innovative Talents Support Project from the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (grant number BX20240158). M.I.S. is thankful to the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (grant number RGPIN-2020-04239) for financial support.
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Contributions
H.T. conceived and directed the overall project. H.T., Y.L., M.I.S. and L.L. supervised the work. M.L. and H.G. conceived the idea and designed the experiment. M.L., H.G. and E.W. fabricated all the devices and conducted the characterization. Z.L., Y.Z. and P.W. carried out the ToF-SIMs measurements. K.X. and R. Lin performed the XPS measurements. Y.W. and X.Z. performed the PL mapping measurements. H.L. M.Y. and W.K. performed the steady-state PL measurements, respectively. R. Liu and X.L. carried out the SEM measurements. W.S. and Y.N. performed the atomic force microscope measurements. M.L. wrote the paper. I.T.C., Y.L., M.I.S. and H.T. reviewed and edited the paper. All authors discussed the results and commented on the paper.
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H.T. is the founder, chief scientific officer, and chairman of Renshine Solar Co., Ltd., a company that is commercializing perovskite PVs. The other authors declare no competing interests.
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Nature Photonics thanks Aurora Rizzo and the other, anonymous, reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
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Supplementary Information (download PDF )
Supplementary Figs. 1–52, Notes 1–5 and Tables 1–9.
Supplementary Video 1 (download MOV )
Pilot-scale slot-die coating based on MP-CW strategy.
Supplementary Video 2 (download MOV )
Video of the mechanical cycling test process_perpendicular to the current flow direction.
Supplementary Video 3 (download MOV )
Video of the mechanical cycling test process_early stage.
Supplementary Video 4 (download MOV )
Video of the mechanical cycling test process_mid stage.
Supplementary Video 5 (download MOV )
Video of the mechanical cycling test process_late stage.
Supplementary Data 1 (download XLSX )
Source Data of Supplementary Fig. 34.
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41566_2025_1746_MOESM8_ESM.xlsx (download XLSX )
Source Data Table 1 Performances of flexible all-perovskite tandem solar cell and module. Source Data Fig. 1 Additive-assisted in situ blade-coating. Source Data Fig. 2 Mechanism of additive-assisted in situ blade-coating process. Source Data Fig. 3 Quality and large-area homogeneity of perovskite films. Source Data Fig. 4 Performance and optoelectronic characterization of flexible perovskite devices. Source Data Fig. 5 Photovoltaic and stability performance of all-perovskite tandem solar modules.
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Li, M., Gao, H., Li, L. et al. In situ coating strategy for flexible all-perovskite tandem modules. Nat. Photon. 19, 1255–1263 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-025-01746-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-025-01746-6
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