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Interface Engineering and Stability Investigation for Organic, Perovskite, and Thin Film Solar Cells

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "A2: Solar Energy and Photovoltaic Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2025) | Viewed by 1237

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
Interests: organic solar cells (OSCs); perovskite solar cells (PSC); thin film solar cell technologies

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing 210023, China
Interests: perovskite solar cells; organic solar cells

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Solar cell technologies, including organic, perovskite, and thin-film solar cells, hold great promise for clean and renewable energy generation. However, to fully exploit their potential, it is crucial to understand and improve the interfaces within these devices. Interfaces play a vital role in charge generation, transport, recombination, and overall device performance. Moreover, stability issues, such as degradation mechanisms, environmental effects, and device lifetime, are significant challenges for the commercialization and widespread adoption of these solar cell technologies.

This Special Issue aims to provide a platform for researchers to present their cutting-edge work on interface engineering strategies to enhance the performance and stability of organic, perovskite, and thin-film solar cells.

The scope of this Special Issue includes, but is not limited to, the following topics:

  • Interface modification techniques;
  • Novel materials and architectures for efficient and stable organic, perovskite, and thin-film solar cells;
  • Characterization techniques for interface and photoactive layer analysis, including spectroscopy, microscopy, and electrical measurements;
  • Interface design and optimization for tandem solar cells and multi-junction architectures;
  • Strategies to mitigate interfacial degradation and improve long-term stability;
  • Device modeling and simulation studies;
  • Technological advancements in scalable manufacturing processes for organic, perovskite, and thin-film solar cells.

Authors are encouraged to submit original research papers that present significant findings, comprehensive reviews, and perspectives that discuss future directions and emerging trends in the field.

Dr. Nafees Ahmad
Prof. Dr. Guangbao Wu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • organic solar cells
  • perovskite solar cells
  • thin-film solar cells
  • interface engineering
  • stability
  • device efficiency
  • device optimization
  • photoactive layer materials

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

18 pages, 1812 KiB  
Review
Cadmium-Free Buffer Layer Materials for Kesterite Thin-Film Solar Cells: An Overview
by Nafees Ahmad and Guangbao Wu
Energies 2025, 18(12), 3198; https://doi.org/10.3390/en18123198 - 18 Jun 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 543
Abstract
Kesterite (CZTS/CZTSSe) thin-film solar cells are considered an eco-friendly, earth-abundant, and low-cost photovoltaic technology that can fulfill our future energy needs. Due to its outstanding properties including tunable bandgap and high absorption coefficient, the power conversion efficiency (PCE) has reached over 14%. However, [...] Read more.
Kesterite (CZTS/CZTSSe) thin-film solar cells are considered an eco-friendly, earth-abundant, and low-cost photovoltaic technology that can fulfill our future energy needs. Due to its outstanding properties including tunable bandgap and high absorption coefficient, the power conversion efficiency (PCE) has reached over 14%. However, toxic cadmium sulfide (CdS) is commonly used as an n-type buffer layer in kesterite thin-film solar cells (KTFSCs) to form a better p–n junction with the p-type CZTS/CZTSSe absorber. In addition to its toxicity, the CdS buffer layer shows parasitic absorption at low wavelengths (400–500 nm) owing to its low bandgap (2.4 eV). For the last few years, several efforts have been made to substitute CdS with an eco-friendly, Cd-free, cost-effective buffer layer with alternative large-bandgap materials such as ZnSnO, Zn (O, S), In2Se3, ZnS, ZnMgO, and TiO2, which showed significant advances. Herein, we summarize the key findings of the research community using a Cd-free buffer layer in KTFSCs to provide a current scenario for future work motivating researchers to design new materials and strategies to achieve higher performance. Full article
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