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In situ dynamic regulation of strain at the buried interface of stable perovskite solar cells

Nature Photonics volume 20, pages 119–127 (2026)Cite this article

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Abstract

The commercialization of perovskite photovoltaics faces significant hurdles due to device degradation under environmental stressors, such as illumination, humidity and heat, which represents a core challenge for industrial applications. Here we present a conformational engineering strategy targeting the buried interface of perovskite solar cells and based on the structural evolution of additives—from 1,1-diphenylethylene to 1-octyl-2-(1-phenylvinyl)benzene and diethylamino hydroxybenzoyl hexyl benzoate. We decouple the contributions of the additives, including ultraviolet shielding, strain regulation and chemical passivation. In conjunction with in situ characterization, we reveal that dynamic interfacial strain regulation plays a major role in improving device stability during light–dark cycling. Our devices achieve power conversion efficiencies of 26.47% and 22.67%, for active areas of 0.09 cm2 and 20.5 cm2, respectively. Under maximum power point tracking, small-area devices maintain 96.2% of their initial power conversion efficiency after 1,132 h of testing in ISOS-L-1I (continuous illumination) and 88.8% after 348 h in ISOS-LC-1 (12-h day–night cycling). This research establishes an innovative design paradigm for stable and efficient perovskite solar cells through a multifunctional strategy driven by conformational engineering.

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Fig. 1: Structural and functional characterization of engineered molecules.
Fig. 2: Improvement of the perovskite at the buried interface.
Fig. 3: Photovoltaic performance and stability of perovskite devices.
Fig. 4: Stress and defect evolution during light–dark cycling.

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Data availability

The data that support the plots and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

Z.Z. acknowledges the Natural Science Foundation of Qingdao, China (grant no. 24-44-zrij-196-jch), National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 22479086) and Key R&D Program of Shandong Province, China (grant no. 2024SFGC0102).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Advanced Optical Polymer and Manufacturing Technology, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, China

    Jiakang Zhang, Wenjian Yan, Haokun Jiang, Cheng Peng, Mengjiao Lan, He Sun, Jinxian Yang & Zhongmin Zhou

  2. Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, China

    Zhipeng Li & Shuping Pang

  3. Beijing Huairou Laboratory, Beijing, China

    Zhipeng Li

  4. State Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

    Yanbo Wang

  5. School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, China

    Chongwen Li

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  1. Jiakang Zhang
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Contributions

Z.Z. and S.P. directed and supervised the project. J.Z. and Z.Z. proposed the idea and designed the experiment with additional input from Y.W. and C.L. J.Z. fabricated and characterized the PSCs, and W.Y. provided assistance in the characterization process. Z.L. prepared large-area modules. J.Z. conducted major measurements. C.P. conducted XRD measurements. H.J., M.L. and H.S. conducted experimental preparation, UV‒visible measurements and SEM characterizations. J.Y. contributed to the pre-experimental preparation work. J.Z., Y.W., C.L., S.P. and Z.Z. participated in all the data analysis and wrote the paper, and all authors reviewed the paper.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yanbo Wang, Chongwen Li, Shuping Pang or Zhongmin Zhou.

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Nature Photonics thanks Davide Ceratti, Yongzhen Wu and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Notes 1–8, Figs. 1–36 and Tables 1–5.

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Supplementary Data 1

Supplementary Figs. 2a–f, 6d, 22, 23, 24, 27 and 28b,d–g.

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Source Data Figs. 1–3

Source data for Figs. 1b,c,e, 2a–c and 3b,c,e,j,k.

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Zhang, J., Yan, W., Li, Z. et al. In situ dynamic regulation of strain at the buried interface of stable perovskite solar cells. Nat. Photon. 20, 119–127 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-025-01808-9

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