Interfacial properties currently hinder the performance of Si/organic heterojunction solar cells for an alternative to high-efficiency and low-cost photovoltaics. Here, we present a simple and repeatable wet oxidation method for developing the surface passivation layer, SiOx, on the Si surface for the fabrication of high-efficiency Si/poly(3,4-ethylene-dioxythiophene):polystyrenesulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) heterojunction solar cells. The uniform and dense SiOx thin layer introduced by the oxidizing aqueous solution of H2O2 or HNO3 provided the better surface passivation and stronger wettability of the Si surface, compared to those in the native oxide case. These two types of progress helped create a lower defect density at the Si/PEDOT:PSS interface and thus a high-quality p-n junction with a lower interface recombination velocity. As a result, the HNO3-oxidized device displayed better performance with a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 11%, representing a 28.96% enhancement from the PCE of 8.53% in the native oxide case. The effects on the performance of the Si/PEDOT:PSS hybrid solar cells of the wet oxidation treatment procedure, including the differences in surface roughness and wettability of the Si substrate, the quality and thickness of the SiOx, etc., were explored extensively. Such a simple and controllable oxidizing treatment could be an effective way to promote the interfacial properties that are an important cornerstone for more efficient Si/organic hybrid solar cells.

Silicon/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) heterojunction solar cells with 16.2% efficiency and excellent stability are fabricated on pyramid-textured silicon substrates by applying a water-insoluble ester as capping layer. This shows that a conformal coating of PEDOT:PSS on textured silicon can greatly improve the junction quality with the main stability failure routes related to the moisture-induced poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) aggregations and the tunneling silicon oxide autothickening.

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Self‐assembled monolayers (SAMs) have emerged as effective carrier transport layers in perovskite (PVK) solar cells because of their unique ability to manipulate interfacial property, as well as simple processing and scalable fabrication. However, the defects and pinholes derived from their sensitive adsorption process inevitably deteriorate the final device performance. Herein, a sputtered nickel oxide (NiOx) interlayer is used as a seed layer to promote the adsorption of the [2‐(3,6‐dimethoxy‐9H‐carbazol‐9‐yl)ethyl]phosphonic acid (MeO‐2PACz) SAM on the indium tin oxide (ITO) substrate. The promoted adsorption is attributed to the enhanced tridentate binding between MeO‐2PACz and NiOx relative to the conventional bidentate binding between MeO‐2PACz and ITO. In addition, the NiOx modification can simultaneously improve the passivation ability and hole‐selectivity of the MeO‐2PACz, provide a favorable energy‐level alignment at the ITO/PVK interface, and prevent a direct contact between PVK and ITO. As a consequence, this NiOx‐seeded MeO‐2PACz hole transport layer enables a significantly enhanced power conversion efficiency of 19.9% in comparison with 18.4% of the control device. This work provides an effective strategy to improve the performance of the SAM‐based photoelectric device.

Tin oxide (SnO 2 ) is widely used in perovskite solar cells (PSCs) as an electron transport layer (ETL) material. However, its high surface trap density has already become a strong factor limiting PSC development. In this work, phosphoric acid is adopted to eliminate the SnO 2 surface dangling bonds to increase electron collection efficiency. The phosphorus mainly exists at the boundaries in the form of chained phosphate groups, bonding with which more than 47.9% of Sn dangling bonds are eliminated. The reduction of surface trap states depresses the electron transport barriers, thus the electron mobility increases about 3 times when the concentration of phosphoric acid is optimized with 7.4 atom % in the SnO 2 precursor. Furthermore, the stability of the perovskite layer deposited on the phosphate-passivated SnO 2 (P-SnO 2 ) ETL is gradually improved with an increase of the concentration. Due to the higher electron collection efficiency, the P-SnO 2 ETLs can dramatically promote the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the PSCs. As a result, the champion PSC has a PCE of 21.02%. Therefore, it has been proved that this simple method is efficient to improve the quality of ETL for high-performance PSCs.

In this paper, the photovoltaic performance and charge recombination of the dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) based on nitrogen-doped TiO 2 electrodes were investigated in detail. A negative shift of the flatband potential (V fb ) of nitrogen-doped TiO 2 film was attributed to the formation of an O-Ti-N bond, and it was indicated that the position of the edge of the V fb is shifted to negative, resulting in the improvement of the open circuit voltage for DSC with nitrogen doping. The UV-vis spectrum of the nitrogen-doped film exhibited a visible absorption in the wavelength range from 400 to 500 nm. The back electron transfer of the nitrogen-doped DSC was studied by measuring the electrochemistry impedance spectra (EIS), and the EIS for DSCs showed that the enhanced electron lifetime for nitrogen-doped TiO 2 solar cells could be attributed to the formation of O-Ti-N in the TiO 2 electrode to retard the recombination reaction at the TiO 2 photoelectrode/electrolyte interface as compared to the undoped TiO 2 solar cells. The photovoltaic performance of the DSC under high temperature conditions and one soaking in sun light for more than 1000 h indicated that the nitrogen-doped TiO 2 solar cells exhibited better stability. It indicated that the formation of O-Ti-N in the TiO 2 electrode influences the performance of the DSC. Especially, the introduction of nitrogen into the DSC can stabilize the DSC system due to the replacement of oxygen-deficient titania by nitrogen-doped TiO 2 .

A fundamental theory including photoelectric response, ion migration and photon recycling effects for back-contact perovskite solar cells is established.

Sequestration of Ni(II) on diatomite as a function of time, pH, and temperature was investigated by batch, XPS, and EXAFS techniques. The ionic strength-dependent sorption at pH < 7.0 was consistent with outer-sphere surface complexation, while the ionic strength-independent sorption at pH = 7.0-8.6 was indicative of inner-sphere surface complexation. EXAFS results indicated that the adsorbed Ni(II) consisted of ∼6 O at R(Ni-O) ≈ 2.05 Å. EXAFS analysis from the second shell suggested that three phenomena occurred at the diatomite/water interface: (1) outer-sphere and/or inner-sphere complexation; (2) dissolution of Si which is the rate limiting step during Ni uptake; and (3) extensive growth of surface (co)precipitates. Under acidic conditions, outer-sphere complexation is the main mechanism controlling Ni uptake, which is in good agreement with the macroscopic results. At contact time of 1 h or 1 day or pH = 7.0-8.0, surface coprecipitates occur concurrently with inner-sphere complexes on diatomite surface, whereas at contact time of 1 month or pH = 10.0, surface (co)precipitates dominate Ni uptake. Furthermore, surface loading increases with temperature increasing, and surface coprecipitates become the dominant mechanism at elevated temperature. The results are important to understand Ni interaction with minerals at the solid-water interface, which is helpful to evaluate the mobility of Ni(II) in the natural environment.