Electric vehicles using lithium-ion battery pack(s) for propulsion have recently attracted a great deal of interest. The large-scale practical application of battery electric vehicles may not be realized unless lithium-ion batteries with self-charging suppliers will be developed. Solar cells offer an attractive option for directly photo-charging lithium-ion batteries. Here we demonstrate the use of perovskite solar cell packs with four single CH₃NH₃PbI₃ based solar cells connected in series for directly photo-charging lithium-ion batteries assembled with a LiFePO₄ cathode and a Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ anode. Our device shows a high overall photo-electric conversion and storage efficiency of 7.80% and excellent cycling stability, which outperforms other reported lithium-ion batteries, lithium-air batteries, flow batteries and super-capacitors integrated with a photo-charging component. The newly developed self-chargeable units based on integrated perovskite solar cells and lithium-ion batteries hold promise for various potential applications.

Nature Communications 6, Article number: 8103 doi:10.1038/ncomms9103
Received 20 May 2015 Accepted 17 July 2015 Published 27 August 2015

http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/150827/ncomms9103/full/ncomms9103.html