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Fiber Solar Cells from High Performances Towards Real Applications

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Abstract

The evolution of electronic systems towards small, flexible, portable and human-centered forms drives the demand for on-body power supplies with lightweight and high flexibility. Fiber solar cells that can be integrated into soft and lightweight textiles are considered as potential sustainable power sources for the next generation of wearable electronics. To this end, they have been extensively investigated in the past decade aiming to improve their photovoltaic performances, but there is still a big gap between the high-performance devices and real applications. Herein, the key advances of configurations, fabrications and performances of fiber solar cells are highlighted and analyzed. Based on the current progress, the latest ideas with regard to the remaining challenges and opportunities beyond the reach of the previous studies are presented.

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Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Reproduced with permission from ref [16]; Copyright 2020, The Royal Society of Chemistry. c Schematic showing the anodization of a Ti wire. d, e SEM images by side (d) and cross-sectional (e) views of an anodized Ti wire, respectively; Reproduced with permission from ref [40]; Copyright 2010, American Chemical Society. f Schematic of the hydrothermal reaction process of fibers. g SEM image of CoS nanoplates grown on carbon fibers by hydrothermal reaction; Reproduced with permission from ref [49]; Copyright 2018, Springer Nature. h SEM image of NiCo2S4 nanosheets grown on carbon fibers by hydrothermal reaction; Reproduced with permission from ref [48]; Copyright 2017, Springer Nature. i Schematic illustrating the deposition of materials on a fiber by thermal evaporation process. j, k SEM images of the top (j) and cross-sectional (k) views of a CH3NH3PbI3 layer prepared on a mesoporous TiO2 layer by the vapor-assisted deposition; Reproduced with permission from ref [52]; Copyright 2019, WILEY–VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim. l Schematic of the continuous wrapping of CNT sheets on fibers. m, n SEM images of CNT sheets wrapped on a rubber fiber at low (m) and high (n) magnifications; Reproduced with permission from ref [53]; Copyright 2014, WILEY–VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by STCSM (20JC1414902, 21511104900), SHMEC (2017-01-07-00-07-E00062) and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (KLH1717008).

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Department of Macromolecular Science, Laboratory of Advanced Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200438, China

    Weijie Zhai, Zhengfeng Zhu, Xuemei Sun & Huisheng Peng

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  1. Weijie Zhai
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Correspondence to Huisheng Peng.

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Zhai, W., Zhu, Z., Sun, X. et al. Fiber Solar Cells from High Performances Towards Real Applications. Adv. Fiber Mater. 4, 1293–1303 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42765-022-00184-1

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