Guanidinium-Enhanced Performance in Perovskite Solar Cells

Incorporation of the guanidinium cation into lead halide perovskite structures has emerged as a versatile strategy to boost both efficiency and operational stability of perovskite solar cells. Guanidinium, a relatively large organic cation, can occupy the A-site of the ABX₃ perovskite lattice, leading to lattice expansion, enhanced defect passivation and stronger hydrogen-bonding networks. These changes suppress non-radiative recombination, improve charge-carrier lifetimes and inhibit moisture- or heat-induced phase degradation. The result is a notable increase in power conversion efficiency, reduced hysteresis and prolonged device lifetimes under continuous illumination. Recent advances have further refined guanidinium incorporation—via mixed-cation engineering, surface treatments and additive post-processing—to address key challenges in commercialisation, including reproducibility, scalability and long-term environmental resilience.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Fundamental work first demonstrated that partial substitution of methylammonium by guanidinium in MAPbI₃ perovskites yields average efficiencies above 19 % and stabilised output under 1,000 h of continuous illumination, marking a pivotal step towards durable high-performance devices. Complementary studies extended guanidinium chemistry to tin-based perovskites, revealing that guanidine hydroiodide co-evaporation with SnI₂ forms a stable perovskite phase with enlarged grain size, improved short-circuit current density and enhanced thermal robustness—validating guanidinium’s broader applicability across lead-free formulations.

Guanidinium-Enhanced Performance in Perovskite Solar Cells publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in guanidinium-enhanced performance in perovskite solar cells across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Guanidinium cation: A large organic A-site ion ((NH₂)₃C⁺) that can expand the perovskite lattice and passivate defects.

Perovskite solar cell: A photovoltaic device using an ABX₃ crystal structure, where A is an organic or inorganic cation, B a metal cation and X a halide.

Power conversion efficiency: The ratio of electrical power output from a solar cell to the incident solar power, expressed as a percentage.

Defect passivation: Treatment or compositional adjustment that neutralises trap states within the material to reduce non-radiative recombination losses.

Bandgap: The energy difference between the valence band and conduction band of a semiconductor, determining its light-absorption threshold.

References

1. Effects of guanidinium iodide surface treatment on CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite solar cells with added decaphenylcyclopentasilane. Nano Trends (2024).
2. Investigation on guanidinium bromide incorporation in methylammonium lead iodide for enhanced efficiency and stability of perovskite solar cells. Solar Energy (2023).
3. Large guanidinium cation mixed with methylammonium in lead iodide perovskites for 19% efficient solar cells. Nature Energy (2017).
4. Hybrid perovskite solar cells fabricated from guanidine hydroiodide and tin iodide. Scientific Reports (2017).
5. Perovskite Solar Cells Yielding Reproducible Photovoltage of 1.20 V. Research (2019).