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Nature volume 649, pages 59–64 (2026)
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Flexible solar cells have a transformative potential for niche applications, but they face fundamental challenges in simultaneously achieving high-power conversion efficiency (PCE), extreme mechanical resilience and operational stability1,2,3,4. Here we demonstrate a certified 33.6%-efficient flexible perovskite/crystalline silicon (c-Si) tandem solar cell with a record open-circuit voltage (Voc) of 2.015 V, rivalling its rigid counterpart. The flexible tandem retains 91% of its initial PCE after 5,000 cycles under a bending radius (Rb) of 17.6 mm and demonstrates exceptional operational and damp-heat stability, featuring a T80 lifetime exceeding 2,000 h under continuous illumination and retaining 90% of its initial PCE after a 1,000 h damp-heat test. This advancement is enabled by the implementation of the reactive-plasma-deposited (RPD) cerium and hydrogen co-doped indium oxide (ICO:H) recombination layer that promotes self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) coverage and interfacial charge transfer, and in situ annealed zinc-doped indium oxide (IZO) front transparent electrode with markedly enhanced optoelectronic and mechanical properties.
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All data are available in the main text or the Supplementary Information. Further data are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.
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X.Y. acknowledges financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 62174114 and no. U24A2063), the National Key R&D program of China (no. 2022YFB4200203), the Department of Science and Technology of Jiangsu Province (BE2022023). X.Z. acknowledges financial support from the Key Project of Jiangsu Provincial Basic Research Plan (no. BK20243031), Suzhou Laboratory–GCL–Soochow University Joint Laboratory for Perovskite Photovoltaics and the Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology.
These authors contributed equally: Shibo Wang, Wenhao Li, Cao Yu, Wei Shi, Qian Kang
College of Energy, Soochow University, Suzhou, China
Shibo Wang, Wenhao Li, Wei Shi, Fengxian Cao, Kun Gao, Liu Yang, Bowen Yang & Xinbo Yang
Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Negative Carbon Technologies, Soochow University, Suzhou, China
Cao Yu & Xiaohong Zhang
Suzhou Maxwell Technologies, Suzhou, China
Cao Yu, Jian Zhou, Shaofei Yang, Qi Wang, Qin Fei & Xi Chen
School of Information Science and Technology, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China
Qian Kang
Key Laboratory of Intelligent Optoelectronic Devices and Chips of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, School of Physical Science and Technology, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, China
Gaoyuan Chen
Research Center for New Energy Technology, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
Pengxu Chen & Wenzhu Liu
Chint New Energy Technology, Haining, China
Zijia Li & Wei-Chih Hsu
Institute of Technology for Carbon Neutrality, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China
Zhongliang Yan & Yang Bai
Center for Renewable Energy and Storage Technologies (CREST), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
Stefaan De Wolf
Suzhou Laboratory, Suzhou, China
Xinbo Yang & Xiaohong Zhang
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X.Y. conceived the idea, designed the overall experiments and led the project. X.Y. and S.W wrote the paper. S.W., W. Li, C.Y. and W.S. fabricated the tandem devices and performed the characterization and analysis. Q.K. performed the TEM characterization and analysis. F.C., K.G., L.Y. and B.Y. contributed to characterizations and data interpretation. J.Z., S.Y., Q.W., Q.F. and X.C. designed and fabricated the silicon bottom cells. G.C. performed the molecular dynamics simulations. P.C. and W. Liu helped with the three-point bending test and analysis. Z.L., W.-C.H., Z.Y. and Y.B. helped with the stability tests. S.D.W., X.Y. and X.Z. supervised this project. All authors contributed to the discussion of the results and revision of the paper.
Correspondence to Stefaan De Wolf, Xinbo Yang or Xiaohong Zhang.
J.Z., S.Y., Q.W., Q.F. and X.C. are employees of Suzhou Maxwell Technologies. Z.L. and W.-C.H. are employees of Chint New Energy Technology. The other authors declare no competing interests.
Nature thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Peer reviewer reports are available.
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
PCE distribution of flexible tandems with in-situ annealed IZO electrode, ICO:H recombination layer, and in-situ annealed IZO + ICO:H recombination layer. The control device is with conventional ITO recombination layer (20 nm) and IZO front electrode without in-situ annealing. Thirty devices were fabricated for each condition. The top lines, bottom lines, lines in the box, square and boxes represent maximum values, minimum values, median values, mean values and 25–75% distributions, respectively.
a, Box plot of Jsc for devices with and without RR, indicating an absolute Jsc gain of 0.4 mA.cm−2. Twenty devices were fabricated for each condition. The top lines, bottom lines, lines in the box, square and boxes represent maximum values, minimum values, median values, mean values and 25–75% distributions, respectively. b, 1-R of the flexible tandem with and without RR within the wavelength range of 900–1180 nm. c, J-V curves for the flexible tandems with and without RR.
a, The J-V curve and b, EQE curve of rigid tandem with identical ICO:H recombination layer and in-situ annealed IZO on a thick SHJ bottom cell (∼120 µm). c, EQE curves of the SHJ subcell with different substrate thickness, demonstrating the reduced EQE response in the NIR when decreasing the substrate thickness.
a, Voc. b, FF. c, Jsc. d, PCE. The curves are normal distributions from six devices.
a, Voc. b, Jsc. c, FF. Fifteen devices were fabricated for each condition. The top lines, bottom lines, lines in the box, square and boxes represent maximum values, minimum values, median values, mean values and 25–75% distributions, respectively.
This file contains Supplementary Tables 1 and 2, Supplementary Figs. 1–17 and Supplementary References.
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Wang, S., Li, W., Yu, C. et al. Flexible perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells with 33.6% efficiency. Nature 649, 59–64 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09849-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09849-4
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