IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v16y2025i1d10.1038_s41467-025-61294-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Cross-linked multifunctional bilayer polymer buffer for enhanced efficiency and stability in perovskite solar cells

Author

Listed:
  • Yuheng Li

    (Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST))

  • Lin Li

    (Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST)
    Beijing Academy of Science and Technology (BJAST))

  • Haipeng Zeng

    (Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST))

  • Chunxiang Lan

    (Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST))

  • Shaomin Yang

    (Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST))

  • Ziwei Zheng

    (Hainan University)

  • Miaomiao Zeng

    (Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST))

  • Yingying Shi

    (Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST))

  • Kai Gao

    (Beijing Academy of Science and Technology (BJAST))

  • Lianmeng Cui

    (Wuhan University of Technology)

  • Rui Guo

    (Hainan University)

  • Jing Guo

    (Hainan University
    Hainan University)

  • Bin Hu

    (Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST)
    Shenzhen Huazhong University of Science and Technology Research Institute)

  • Yaoguang Rong

    (Wuhan University of Technology)

  • Haibing Xie

    (Shenzhen University)

  • Xiong Li

    (Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST)
    Hainan University)

Abstract

Addressing the stability challenges induced by the chemical interactions between metal electrodes and perovskite components is essential for high-performance perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Herein, we design a bilayer multifunctional polymer buffer composed of polyethyleneimine (PEI) and 2-((2-methyl-3-(2-((2-methylbutanoyl)oxy)ethoxy)−3-oxopropyl)thio)−3-(methylthio)succinic acid (PDMEA), inserting into the interface of metal electrode/transporting layer. This buffer mitigates metal atom diffusion by forming thioether-metal-carboxyl chelation rings between the metal layer and PDMEA. Additionally, it facilitates efficient electron transport and suppresses interfacial recombination through an in-situ cross-linking between the carboxyl groups of PDMEA and the amine groups of PEI based on Lewis acid-base reaction. Consequently, this design effectively reduces undesirable metal/ion interdiffusion during device fabrication and operation. The resulting PSCs with the PEI/PDMEA buffer achieve certified power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of 26.46% (0.1 cm2) and 24.70% (1.01 cm2), demonstrating enhanced thermal and operational stability. We anticipate that this buffer design strategy, which forms bilayer polymer buffers via cross-linking of polymers with distinct functionalities, will inspire the rational design of robust buffers for highly efficient and stable PSCs and other electronic devices.

Suggested Citation

  • Yuheng Li & Lin Li & Haipeng Zeng & Chunxiang Lan & Shaomin Yang & Ziwei Zheng & Miaomiao Zeng & Yingying Shi & Kai Gao & Lianmeng Cui & Rui Guo & Jing Guo & Bin Hu & Yaoguang Rong & Haibing Xie & Xio, 2025. "Cross-linked multifunctional bilayer polymer buffer for enhanced efficiency and stability in perovskite solar cells," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-11, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-61294-z
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-61294-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-61294-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-025-61294-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sai Bai & Peimei Da & Cheng Li & Zhiping Wang & Zhongcheng Yuan & Fan Fu & Maciej Kawecki & Xianjie Liu & Nobuya Sakai & Jacob Tse-Wei Wang & Sven Huettner & Stephan Buecheler & Mats Fahlman & Feng Ga, 2019. "Planar perovskite solar cells with long-term stability using ionic liquid additives," Nature, Nature, vol. 571(7764), pages 245-250, July.
    2. Peng Chen & Yun Xiao & Juntao Hu & Shunde Li & Deying Luo & Rui Su & Pietro Caprioglio & Pascal Kaienburg & Xiaohan Jia & Nan Chen & Jingjing Wu & Yanping Sui & Pengyi Tang & Haoming Yan & Tianyu Huan, 2024. "Multifunctional ytterbium oxide buffer for perovskite solar cells," Nature, Nature, vol. 625(7995), pages 516-522, January.
    3. Xiaopeng Zheng & Zhen Li & Yi Zhang & Min Chen & Tuo Liu & Chuanxiao Xiao & Danpeng Gao & Jay B. Patel & Darius Kuciauskas & Artiom Magomedov & Rebecca A. Scheidt & Xiaoming Wang & Steven P. Harvey & , 2023. "Co-deposition of hole-selective contact and absorber for improving the processability of perovskite solar cells," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 8(5), pages 462-472, May.
    4. Long Luo & Haipeng Zeng & Zaiwei Wang & Min Li & Shuai You & Bin Chen & Aidan Maxwell & Qinyou An & Lianmeng Cui & Deying Luo & Juntao Hu & Shangzhi Li & Xueqing Cai & Weixi Li & Lin Li & Rui Guo & Ro, 2023. "Stabilization of 3D/2D perovskite heterostructures via inhibition of ion diffusion by cross-linked polymers for solar cells with improved performance," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 8(3), pages 294-303, March.
    5. Dong Yang & Ruixia Yang & Kai Wang & Congcong Wu & Xuejie Zhu & Jiangshan Feng & Xiaodong Ren & Guojia Fang & Shashank Priya & Shengzhong (Frank) Liu, 2018. "High efficiency planar-type perovskite solar cells with negligible hysteresis using EDTA-complexed SnO2," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, December.
    6. Nam-Gyu Park & Michael Grätzel & Tsutomu Miyasaka & Kai Zhu & Keith Emery, 2016. "Towards stable and commercially available perovskite solar cells," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 1(11), pages 1-8, November.
    7. Shaohang Wu & Rui Chen & Shasha Zhang & B. Hari Babu & Youfeng Yue & Hongmei Zhu & Zhichun Yang & Chuanliang Chen & Weitao Chen & Yuqian Huang & Shaoying Fang & Tianlun Liu & Liyuan Han & Wei Chen, 2019. "A chemically inert bismuth interlayer enhances long-term stability of inverted perovskite solar cells," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-11, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xinchen Dai & Pramod Koshy & Charles Christopher Sorrell & Jongchul Lim & Jae Sung Yun, 2020. "Focussed Review of Utilization of Graphene-Based Materials in Electron Transport Layer in Halide Perovskite Solar Cells: Materials-Based Issues," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-24, December.
    2. Huihui Zhu & Ao Liu & Kyu In Shim & Haksoon Jung & Taoyu Zou & Youjin Reo & Hyunjun Kim & Jeong Woo Han & Yimu Chen & Hye Yong Chu & Jun Hyung Lim & Hyung-Jun Kim & Sai Bai & Yong-Young Noh, 2022. "High-performance hysteresis-free perovskite transistors through anion engineering," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, December.
    3. Bartlett, Stuart & Dujardin, Jérôme & Kahl, Annelen & Kruyt, Bert & Manso, Pedro & Lehning, Michael, 2018. "Charting the course: A possible route to a fully renewable Swiss power system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 942-955.
    4. Zuolin Zhang & Yinsu Feng & Jike Ding & Quanxing Ma & Hong Zhang & Jiajia Zhang & Mengjia Li & Taoran Geng & Wenhuan Gao & Yang Wang & Boxue Zhang & Thierry Pauporté & Jian-Xin Tang & Hongjian Chen & , 2025. "Rationally designed universal passivator for high-performance single-junction and tandem perovskite solar cells," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-12, December.
    5. Bingcheng Yu & Jiangjian Shi & Yiming Li & Shan Tan & Yuqi Cui & Fanqi Meng & Huijue Wu & Yanhong Luo & Dongmei Li & Qingbo Meng, 2025. "Regulating three-layer full carbon electrodes to enhance the cell performance of CsPbI3 perovskite solar cells," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-10, December.
    6. Issa M.Aziz, 2023. "A review of thin film solar cell," Technium, Technium Science, vol. 10(1), pages 6-13.
    7. Alessandro Cannavale & Francesco Martellotta & Francesco Fiorito & Ubaldo Ayr, 2020. "The Challenge for Building Integration of Highly Transparent Photovoltaics and Photoelectrochromic Devices," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-24, April.
    8. Grażyna Kulesza-Matlak & Kazimierz Drabczyk & Anna Sypień & Agnieszka Pająk & Łukasz Major & Marek Lipiński, 2021. "Interlayer Microstructure Analysis of the Transition Zone in the Silicon/Perovskite Tandem Solar Cell," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-15, October.
    9. Satya Kamal Chirauri & Asish K. Dehury & Yatendra S. Chaudhary, 2020. "Photosupercapacitors: A perspective of planar and flexible dual functioning devices," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(6), November.
    10. Tong Wang & Jiabao Yang & Qi Cao & Xingyu Pu & Yuke Li & Hui Chen & Junsong Zhao & Yixin Zhang & Xingyuan Chen & Xuanhua Li, 2023. "Room temperature nondestructive encapsulation via self-crosslinked fluorosilicone polymer enables damp heat-stable sustainable perovskite solar cells," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    11. Ahmed N. Abdalla & Wang Jing & Muhammad Shahzad Nazir & Mingxin Jiang & Hao Tao, 2023. "Socio-economic impacts of solar energy technologies for sustainable green energy: a review," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(12), pages 13695-13732, December.
    12. Lu, Zhen & Huang, Yuewu & Zhao, Yonggang, 2023. "Elastocaloric cooler for waste heat recovery from perovskite solar cell with electricity and cooling production," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 215(C).
    13. Qiong Liang & Kuan Liu & Yu Han & Hao Xia & Zhiwei Ren & Dongyang Li & Tao Zhu & Lei Cheng & Zhenrong Wang & Cheng Zhu & Patrick W. K. Fong & Jiaming Huang & Qi Chen & Yang Yang & Gang Li, 2025. "Highly stable perovskite solar cells with 0.30 voltage deficit enabled by a multi-functional asynchronous cross-linking," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-10, December.
    14. Li, Bowei & Jayawardena, K.D. G. Imalka & Zhang, Jing & Bandara, Rajapakshe Mudiyanselage Indrachapa & Liu, Xueping & Bi, Jingxin & Silva, Shashini M. & Liu, Dongtao & Underwood, Cameron C.L. & Xiang,, 2024. "Stability of formamidinium tin triiodide-based inverted perovskite solar cells," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 189(PB).
    15. Benjamin Liu & Zihan Jia & Zhiliang Chen, 2024. "A Direct Chemical Approach to Mitigate Environment Lead Contamination in Perovskite Solar Cells," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-14, March.
    16. Xin Zhang & Ruichen Bai & Yuhao Fu & Yingying Hao & Xinkai Peng & Jia Wang & Bangzhi Ge & Jianxi Liu & Yongcai Hu & Xiaoping Ouyang & Wanqi Jie & Yadong Xu, 2024. "High energy resolution CsPbBr3 alpha particle detector with a full-customized readout application specific integrated circuit," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    17. Bitao Dong & Mingyang Wei & Yuheng Li & Yingguo Yang & Wei Ma & Yueshuai Zhang & Yanbiao Ran & Meijie Cui & Ziru Su & Qunping Fan & Zhaozhao Bi & Tomas Edvinsson & Zhiqin Ding & Huanxin Ju & Shuai You, 2025. "Self-assembled bilayer for perovskite solar cells with improved tolerance against thermal stresses," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 10(3), pages 342-353, March.
    18. Dhruba B. Khadka & Yasuhiro Shirai & Masatoshi Yanagida & Hitoshi Ota & Andrey Lyalin & Tetsuya Taketsugu & Kenjiro Miyano, 2024. "Defect passivation in methylammonium/bromine free inverted perovskite solar cells using charge-modulated molecular bonding," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-16, December.
    19. Shariatinia, Zahra, 2020. "Recent progress in development of diverse kinds of hole transport materials for the perovskite solar cells: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    20. Mesquita, Isabel & Andrade, Luísa & Mendes, Adélio, 2018. "Perovskite solar cells: Materials, configurations and stability," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 82(P3), pages 2471-2489.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-61294-z. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.