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A Lightweight Polymer Solar Cell Textile that Functions when Illuminated from Either Side
Author(s) -
Zhang Zhitao,
Li Xueyi,
Guan Guozhen,
Pan Shaowu,
Zhu Zhengju,
Ren Dayong,
Peng Huisheng
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.201407688
Subject(s) - materials science , textile , cathode , anode , polymer , electrode , micrometer , solar cell , nanotechnology , composite material , carbon nanotube , bending , optoelectronics , photovoltaic system , metal , optics , metallurgy , electrical engineering , chemistry , physics , engineering
An all‐solid‐state, lightweight, flexible, and wearable polymer solar cell (PSC) textile with reasonable photovoltaic performance has been developed. A metal textile electrode made from micrometer‐sized metal wires is used as the cathode, and the surfaces of the metal wires are dip‐coated with the photoactive layers. Two ultrathin, transparent, and aligned carbon nanotube sheets that exhibit remarkable electronic and mechanical properties were coated onto the modified metal textile at both sides as the anode to produce the desired PSC textile. Because of the designed sandwich structure, the PSC textile displays the same energy conversion efficiencies regardless of which side it is irradiated from. As expected, the PSC textiles are highly flexible, and their energy conversion efficiencies varied by less than 3 % after bending for more than 200 cycles. The PSC textile shows an areal density (5.9 mg cm −2 ) that is lower than that of flexible film‐based PSCs (31.3 mg cm −2 ).