Enriching conductive capping by alkaline treatment of perovskite quantum dots towards certified 18.3%-efficient solar cells

Donglin Jia, Jiaxin Li, Kefan Zhu, Hengwei Qiu, Liang Li, Xing Zhao, Zhineng Lan, Huilin Yan, Fu Yang, Peng Cui, Xin Sun, Haifang Li, Pengkun Zhu, Shaofeng Liu and Meicheng Li ()
Additional contact information
Donglin Jia: North China Electric Power University
Jiaxin Li: North China Electric Power University
Kefan Zhu: North China Electric Power University
Hengwei Qiu: North China Electric Power University
Liang Li: North China Electric Power University
Xing Zhao: North China Electric Power University
Zhineng Lan: North China Electric Power University
Huilin Yan: North China Electric Power University
Fu Yang: North China Electric Power University
Peng Cui: North China Electric Power University
Xin Sun: North China Electric Power University
Haifang Li: North China Electric Power University
Pengkun Zhu: North China Electric Power University
Shaofeng Liu: Haidian
Meicheng Li: North China Electric Power University

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: Abstract Perovskite quantum dots (PQD) hold great promise for next-generation photovoltaics. However, neat ester antisolvents hydrolyze inefficiently into target ligands under ambient conditions, compromising the formation of integral conductive capping on PQD surfaces. Herein, we construct alkaline environments, which facilitate the rapid substitution of pristine insulating oleate ligands with up to twice the conventional amount of hydrolyzed conductive counterparts. Theoretical calculations reveal that this environment renders ester hydrolysis thermodynamically spontaneous and lowers reaction activation energy by approximately 9-fold. Through tailoring potassium hydroxide coupled with methyl benzoate antisolvent for interlayer rinsing of PQD solids, the assembled light-absorbing layers exhibit fewer trap-states, homogeneous orientations, and minimal particle agglomerations. Consequently, the fabricated solar cells (0.036 cm2) achieve a certified efficiency of 18.3%, the highest value among published PQD solar cell reports, alongside a steady-state efficiency of 17.85% and an average efficiency of 17.68% over 20 devices. Moreover, the alkaline treatment is broadly compatible with diverse solid-state treatments and PQD compositions, demonstrating universality in modulating PQD surface chemistry.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-63618-5 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-63618-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-63618-5

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().