Beyond the Gold Standard: Towards Industrially Viable Electrodes for Durable Perovskite Solar Cells

Tino Lukas^a^,^b^,ⁱ, Manuel Kober-Czerny^a, Ali Reza Nazari Pour^c, James McGettrick^d, Georgios Loukeris^b^,^e^,^f, Clemens Baretzky^b^,^f, Shuaifeng Hu^a, Junke Wang^a, Chia-Yu Chang^g, Sam Teale^a, Bowei Li^h, Trystan M. Watson^d, Robert L.Z. Hoye^g, Philippe Holzhey^a, Lukas Wagner^c, Markus Kohlstädt^b^,^f, Henry J. Snaith^a

^aDepartment of Physics, University of Oxford, Clarendon Laboratory, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PU, United Kingdom

^bFraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, Freiburg, 79110, Germany

^cPhilipps-Universität Marburg, Department of Physics, Group Physics of Solar Energy Conversion, Marburg, Germany

^dSPECIFIC, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Swansea University, Swansea, SA1 8EN, UK.

^eInstitute of Physics, University of Freiburg, Herman-Herder-Straße 3, 79104 Freiburg, Germany

^fFreiburg Materials Research Center FMF, University of Freiburg, Stefan-Meier-Str. 21, 79104 Freiburg, Germany

^gInorganic Chemistry Department, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford

^hAdvanced Technology Institute, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey GU2 7XH, UK

ⁱShun Hing Institute of Advanced Engineering Chinese University of Hong Kong Sha Tin, Hong Kong, China

Proceedings of International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV26)

Uppsala, Sweden, 2026 May 18th - 20th

Organizers: Gerrit Boschloo, Ellen Moons, Feng Gao and Anders Hagfeldt

Oral, Tino Lukas, presentation 035
Publication date: 11th March 2026

While perovskite solar cells (PSC) have reached efficiencies near the practical limit, sustaining high energy yields through long-term operation remains challenging. For thin-film PSCs, evaporated Au electrodes are commonly used as the most stable metallic contact. Au is, however, unsuitable for industrial applications because of its high cost. Devices with cheaper metals are often observed to lead to unstable PSCs. To overcome this challenge, we assess the impact of a 5 nm chrome (Cr) interlayer, often used in semiconductor devices to inhibit metal interdiffusion, beneath Cu, Ag and Al electrodes. We find comparable stability for devices with Cr/Al electrodes and Au-based devices, while being 100,000 times more cost-effective in terms of raw materials price. On the opposite side of the PSC, transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) are usually used as the “window” electrode. We reveal a large difference in stability between indium tin oxide (ITO) and fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) electrodes, with FTO-based PSCs being more stable across different temperatures under simulated solar irradiance. We show that significant amounts of In³⁺ ions throughout the perovskite layers are deleterious to stability. Combining the most stable electrodes, devices on FTO substrates with Cr/Al bilayers, were stable across laboratories, with champion devices retaining over 66% of their initial efficiency after 1037 hours at 75 °C under simulated sunlight. Our findings highlight the importance of substrate and electrode selection for durable, scalable perovskite solar cells and offer a sustainable solution. This also has broader implications for stable and cost-effective electrode materials for other optoelectronic devices composed of perovskites and other PV technologies.

nanoGe is a prestigious brand of successful science conferences that are developed along the year in different areas of the world since 2009. Our worldwide conferences cover cutting-edge materials topics like perovskite solar cells, photovoltaics, optoelectronics, solar fuel conversion, surface science, catalysis and two-dimensional materials, among many others.

MATSUS

Previously nanoGe Spring Meeting (NSM) and nanoGe Fall Meeting (NFM), MATSUS is a multiple symposia conference focused on a broad set of topics of advanced materials preparation, their fundamental properties, and their applications, in fields such as renewable energy, photovoltaics, lighting, semiconductor quantum dots, 2-D materials synthesis, charge carriers dynamics, microscopy and spectroscopy semiconductors fundamentals, etc.

International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics

International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV) is celebrated yearly in May. The main topics are the development, function and modeling of materials and devices for hybrid and organic solar cells. The field is now dominated by perovskite solar cells but also other hybrid technologies, as organic solar cells, quantum dot solar cells, and dye-sensitized solar cells and their integration into devices for photoelectrochemical solar fuel production.

Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics

The main topics of the Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics (IPEROP) are discussed every year in Asia-Pacific for gathering the recent advances in the fields of material preparation, modeling and fabrication of perovskite and hybrid and organic materials. Photovoltaic devices are analyzed from fundamental physics and materials properties to a broad set of applications. The conference also covers the developments of perovskite optoelectronics, including light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.

International Conference on Perovskite Thin Film Photovoltaics Perovskite Photonics and Optoelectronics

The International Conference on Perovskite Thin Film Photovoltaics Perovskite Photonics and Optoelectronics (NIPHO) is the best place to hear the latest developments in perovskite solar cells as well as on recent advances in the fields of perovskite light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.