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Nature Energy volume 10, pages 774–784 (2025)
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The deposition of electron-transport layers using chemical bath deposition (CBD) enables high efficiency in perovskite solar cells. However, the conventional CBD methods require time to achieve uniform films on large substrates and often fail to deposit high-quality films due to incomplete surface coverage and oxidation. Here we show an excess ligand strategy based on the CBD of tin oxide (SnO2), suppressing the cluster-by-cluster pathway while facilitating the ion-by-ion pathway to create uniform films. Our approach enables rapid synthesis of high-quality SnO2 electron-transport layers with reduced defect densities. The resulting SnO2 thin films exhibit superior optoelectronic properties, including a low surface-recombination velocity (5.5 cm s−1) and a high electroluminescence efficiency of 24.8%. These improvements result in a high power-conversion efficiency of 26.4% for perovskite solar cells, an efficiency of 23% for perovskite modules and an efficiency of 23.1% for carbon-based perovskite cells. This highlights its potential for the low-cost, large-scale production of efficient solar devices.
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S.S.S acknowledges support from the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (RS-2024-00345042 and RS-2024-00445116). S.I.S acknowledges support from the Basic Science Research Program (RS-2018-NR030954) through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (MSIP). We thank H.-E. Nam for her assistance in creating Fig. 1a,b.
These authors contributed equally: Gabkyung Seo, Jason J. Yoo, Seongsik Nam, Da Seul Lee.
SKKU Advanced Institute of Nanotechnology (SAINT), Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Republic of Korea
Gabkyung Seo, Seongsik Nam, Da Seul Lee, Shanshan Gao, Bo Kyung Kim, Ji-Sang Park & Seong Sik Shin
Department of Energy Science, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Republic of Korea
Gabkyung Seo
Division of Advanced Materials, Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
Jason J. Yoo, Sae Jin Sung, Bong Joo Kang & Seong Sik Shin
Department of Nano Science and Technology, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Republic of Korea
Seongsik Nam, Da Seul Lee, Shanshan Gao, Bo Kyung Kim, Ji-Sang Park & Seong Sik Shin
Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
Dane W. deQuilettes
Department of Physics, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
Junho Park & Fabian Rotermund
Department of Nano Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Republic of Korea
Ji-Sang Park & Seong Sik Shin
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Ajou University, Suwon, Republic of Korea
In Sun Cho
Department of Energy Systems Research, Ajou University, Suwon, Republic of Korea
In Sun Cho
Department of Energy and Chemical Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan, Republic of Korea
Sang Il Seok
SKKU Institute of Energy Science & Technology (SIEST), Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Republic of Korea
Seong Sik Shin
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G.S. and S.S.S. conceived and designed the experiment. G.S. and S.S.S. conducted the synthesis and the analysis of the SnO2 film. J.J.Y. and D.W.D. performed the optical characterization and data analysis of the perovskite films. G.S., S.N., S.J.S., B.K.K. and S.G. conducted the fabrication of perovskite solar cells and their certification. S.N. and D.S.L. fabricated mini-modules and revised the paper. J.J.Y. and S.N. conducted the electroluminescence measurements with supervision. J.P. and B.J.K. conducted the transient absorption measurement with supervision from F.R. J.-S.P. performed density function theory calculation. J.J.Y. and G.S. wrote the first draft of the manuscript, and all authors contributed feedback and comments. I.S.C., S.I.S. and S.S.S. reviewed and revised the paper. S.I.S. and S.S.S. directed and supervised the research.
Correspondence to Sang Il Seok or Seong Sik Shin.
D.W.D. is a co-founder of Optigon Inc., a US company developing metrology tools for the photovoltaics industry. The other authors declare no competing interests.
Nature Energy thanks Jae-Wook Kang, Yixin Zhao and the other, anonymous, reviewer for their contribution to the peer review of this work
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Figs. 1–22, Tables 1–9 and references.
Statistical supplementary data for Supplementary Fig. 14.
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Seo, G., Yoo, J.J., Nam, S. et al. Efficient and luminescent perovskite solar cells using defect-suppressed SnO2 via excess ligand strategy. Nat Energy 10, 774–784 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-025-01781-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-025-01781-1
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