On December 26, the “Highlighted Achievements Most Focused by Teachers and Students of Tsinghua University” (10 in total) were announced at the “Scientific Research and Innovation Exchange Meeting” of the university, and the research achievement “High-efficiency Flexible Solar Cells” of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Applied Electronics (EEA) was selected.

Flexible perovskite solar cells, which are light, thin and flexible, have broad application prospects in wearable electronics, aerospace, and building-integrated photovoltaics. By introducing a succinate multifunctional additive into the perovskite precursor, the film quality of the light-absorbing layer and the efficiency and bending resistance of the photovoltaic device are improved. EEA’s team achieved a photoelectric conversion efficiency of 23.6%, which is a new record of single-junction flexible perovskite cells. After bending 10,000 times, the battery efficiency can still maintain 85% of the initial value. This breakthrough will promote the large-scale application of flexible photovoltaic technology and help achieve the “dual carbon” goal. The achievement was published in “The Innovation”, a journal of “Cell”, and was selected as the cover.

The team of Yi Chenyi from EEA have long been committed to the preparation and industrialization of high-efficiency and high-stability perovskite solar cells. They have made a series of innovative achievements in the preparation of high-efficiency, large-area and high-stability perovskite solar cells, synthesis and application of new hole transport materials, and the development of flexible devices. Many of their research achievements are published in top international journals such as Joule and Science Advances.

Yi Chenyi, a special researcher of EEA, associate professor sponsored by Zhang Mingtao and doctoral supervisor, was enrolled in the list of the National Project of Overseas High-level Young Talents. In 2010, he obtained a Ph.D. degree from the University of Bern, Switzerland, and won the National Scholarship for Outstanding Self-Financed Students. Then he joined the Photonics and Interface Laboratory of the University of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland, and studied under the father of dye-sensitized solar cells Michael Graetzel to develop dye-sensitized cells and perovskite solar cells. In 2017, he joined the Department of Electrical Engineering and Applied Electronics of Tsinghua University as an associate professor and doctoral supervisor. In 2022, he was selected as associate professor sponsored by Zhang Mingtao. Mr. Yi Chenyi has made a series of internationally influential research achievements in the field of solar cells, and has published more than 60 high-level papers in international journals such as Science and Joule, which have been cited more than 15,000 times. He has applied for and obtained more than 10 patents, some enterprises incubated and established with his research results have received tens of millions of yuan in the angel round financing, and now he is working on the industrialization of perovskite solar cells.