Wearable Solar Cells by Stacking Textile Electrodes

• Published in: Angewandte Chemie International Edition Vol. 53; no. 24; pp. 6110 - 6114
• Main Authors: Pan, Shaowu, Yang, Zhibin, Chen, Peining, Deng, Jue, Li, Houpu, Peng, Huisheng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Weinheim WILEY-VCH Verlag 10-06-2014; WILEY‐VCH Verlag; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Edition: International ed. in English
• Subjects: Differential scanning calorimetry; dye-sensitized solar cells; Dyes; Electrodes; electron transfer; energy conversion; Energy conversion efficiency; light-emitting diodes; Photovoltaic cells; Solar cells; Solar energy; Stacking; Textiles; Wearable; energy conversion; light-emitting diodes; electron transfer; dye-sensitized solar cells
• ISSN: 1433-7851; 1521-3773
• DOI: 10.1002/anie.201402561

A new and general method to produce flexible, wearable dye‐sensitized solar cell (DSC) textiles by the stacking of two textile electrodes has been developed. A metal–textile electrode that was made from micrometer‐sized metal wires was used as a working electrode, while the textile counter electrode was woven from highly aligned carbon nanotube fibers with high mechanical strengths and electrical conductivities. The resulting DSC textile exhibited a high energy conversion efficiency that was well maintained under bending. Compared with the woven DSC textiles that are based on wire‐shaped devices, this stacked DSC textile unexpectedly exhibited a unique deformation from a rectangle to a parallelogram, which is highly desired in portable electronics. This lightweight and wearable stacked DSC textile is superior to conventional planar DSCs because the energy conversion efficiency of the stacked DSC textile was independent of the angle of incident light.
Wearable and efficient dye‐sensitized solar cells (DSC) that are based on textile electrodes were synthesized according to a new and general method. These DSC textiles are flexible and stable and can be easily integrated to tune the output voltage or current. The use of these wearable DSC textiles to drive a light‐emitting diode was successfully demonstrated.