With rising energy concerns, efficient energy conversion and storage devices are required to provide a sustainable, green energy supply. Solar cells hold promise as energy conversion devices due to their utilization of readily accessible solar energy; however, the output of solar cells can be non-continuous and unstable. Therefore, it is necessary to combine solar cells with compatible energy storage devices to realize a stable power supply. To this end, supercapacitors, highly efficient energy storage devices, can be integrated with solar cells to mitigate the power fluctuations. Here, we report on the development of a solar cell-supercapacitor hybrid device as a solution to this energy requirement. A high-performance, cotton-textile-enabled asymmetric supercapacitor is integrated with a flexible solar cell via a scalable roll-to-roll manufacturing approach to fabricate a self-sustaining power pack, demonstrating its potential to continuously power future electronic devices.
Nature Communications 7, Article number: 11586 doi:10.1038/ncomms11586
Received 12 November 2015 Accepted 06 April 2016 Published 18 May 2016
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2016/160518/ncomms11586/full/ncomms11586.html