journal article·2026-03Open access

Achieving Seasonal Reproducibility in Wide‐Bandgap Sn‐Based Perovskite Solar Cells via Proton‐Locking Interface Engineering

SungWon Cho, Seong Chan Cho, Padmini Pandey, Seojun Lee, Hyungju Ahn, In‐Wook Hwang, Jun Ryu, Hyosung Choi, Jitendra Bahadur, Jincheol Kim, Sang Uck Lee, Dong‐Won Kang

Advanced Energy Materials· Volume 16· Issue 9

Abstract

ABSTRACT The advancement of wide‐bandgap (WBG) Sn‐perovskite devices is substantially hindered by seasonal instability and limited reproducibility, primarily due to moisture‐induced over‐doping of PEDOT:PSS and Sn 2+ oxidation. Here, we introduce a hydrophobic proton‐locking interface engineering strategy by incorporating a novel S‐benzyl‐L‐cysteine (SBLC) molecule into PEDOT:PSS. The hydrophobic benzyl backbone, amine groups, and significant dipole moment of SBLC facilitate strong coordination with Sn 2+ , effectively preventing moisture ingress and stabilizing buried interfacial energetics. This multifunctional modulation suppresses defects and promotes uniform crystallization across varying humidity and seasonal conditions. The optimized Target device, based on a WBG Sn‐perovskite composition of PEA 0.10 FA 0.75 EA 0.15 SnI 2.15 Br 0.85 , achieves a power conversion efficiency of 11.50% and retains >80% of its average performance across 279 devices fabricated monthly over 11 months, thereby establishing the first seasonal reproducibility benchmark. Furthermore, this approach exhibits increased stability of various stress conditions and enables a record efficiency of 17.40% in all‐perovskite tandem devices featuring a WBG Sn‐perovskite. These findings provide a scalable pathway toward reproducible, tandem‐compatible, lead‐free photovoltaics.
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Research context

OpenAlex topics: Perovskite Materials and Applications · TiO2 Photocatalysis and Solar Cells · Organic Electronics and Photovoltaics

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

Department of Smart Cities Chung‐Ang University Seoul Republic of Korea

School of Chemical Engineering Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) Suwon Republic of Korea

Department of Energy Systems Engineering Chung‐Ang University Seoul Republic of Korea

Pohang Accelerator Laboratory POSTECH Pohang Republic of Korea

Advanced Photonics Research Institute Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology Gwangju Republic of Korea

Department of Chemistry Research Institute for Natural Sciences, and Research Institute For Convergence of Basic Science Hanyang University Seoul Republic of Korea

Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering Amrita School of Engineering Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Bengaluru Karnataka India

School of Engineering Macquarie University Sustainable Energy Research Centre Macquarie University Sydney NSW Australia

Funding

National Research Foundation of Korea

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