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Nature Photonics (2026)
Long-term stability of perovskite modules under outdoor conditions remains challenging, hindering their commercialization. Defect evolution driven by charge accumulation is as a key factor deteriorating the performance of perovskite optoelectronic devices. Here we introduce an amorphous (shell)–crystalline (core) silicon nitride (Si3N4) nanocomposite at the buried interface of perovskite solar cells. The composite acts as a nano-cacher that mitigates charge accumulation and suppresses defect evolution. The amorphous shell, with a low density of unsaturated dangling bonds, effectively passivates surface defects of the perovskite film. Simultaneously, the trapping centres within the crystalline Si3N4 core capture accumulated charge carriers during device operation, progressively enhancing the internal electric field. This, in turn, improves charge extraction efficiency and suppresses defect evolution driven by charge accumulation. The resulting perovskite solar cells and minimodules with an area of 10.86 cm2 achieve a power conversion efficiency of 26.65% (certified 26.37%) and 23.17% (certified 22.2%), respectively. Moreover, large perovskite modules (area 1,252 cm2) maintain stable power output over 6 months of outdoor operation.
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The data supporting the findings of this study are provided in the main text and the Supplementary Information. More data are available from the corresponding authors upon request.
Best Research-Cell Efficiency Chart (NREL, 2024); https://www.nrel.gov/pv/cell-efficiency.html
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X.Y. thanks the project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (numbers 62025403 and U23A20354). Y.W. thanks the National Natural Science Foundation of China (numbers 52302315 and 62474157), the National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars (Overseas), the Top Talent Project of West Lake Pearl Project and the talent project of ZJU-Hangzhou Global Scientific and Technological Innovation Center (number 02170000-K02013017). X.W. thanks the project of the China Huaneng Group Key R&D Program (HNKJ22-H104). W.N. thanks the support from the Gusu Innovation and Entrepreneurship Leading Talent Program (ZXL2023188), the Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-Based Functional Materials and Devices (Z221311) and the Suzhou Key Laboratory of Functional Nano and Soft Materials, Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, the 111 Project. We thank Y. Zhang from the Testing and Analysis Center of Department of Polymer Science and Engineering at Zhejiang University for the assistance in performing photoluminescence spectroscopy measurements. We thank Y. Cheng from the Instrumentation and Service Center for Molecular Sciences at Westlake University for the assistance and supporting in the TPC measurement.
These authors contributed equally: Biao Li, Xingtao Wang.
State Key Laboratory of Silicon and Advanced Semiconductor Materials and School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hangzhou Global Scientific and Technological Innovation Center, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China
Biao Li, Tianchi Zhang, Yong Wang, Xuegong Yu & Deren Yang
Huaneng Clean Energy Research Institute, Beijing, People’s Republic of China
Xingtao Wang & Dongming Zhao
Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials, Joint International Research Laboratory of Carbon-Based Functional Materials and Devices, Soochow University, Suzhou, People’s Republic of China
Tianchi Zhang & Weihua Ning
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Y.W. and B.L. conceived the idea. D.Y., X.Y. and Y.W. supported this work. B.L., Y.W. and T.Z. fabricated and characterized the devices. X.W. and D.Z. contributed to the fabrication of modules. B.L. and Y.W. wrote the original draft. D.Y., X.Y., Y.W., W.N. and X.W. reviewed and edited the draft.
Correspondence to Dongming Zhao, Yong Wang, Xuegong Yu or Deren Yang.
The authors declare no competing interests.
Nature Photonics thanks Antonio Abate and Fei Zhang for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
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Supplementary Figs. 1–50, Notes 1–18, Tables 1–8 and References 1–16.
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Li, B., Wang, X., Zhang, T. et al. Silicon nitride nanocomposites at the buried interface for stable perovskite solar cells. Nat. Photon. (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-025-01819-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-025-01819-6
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