Crumple Durable Ultraflexible Organic Solar Cells with an Excellent Power-per-Weight Performance

Ultraflexible and ultra-lightweight organic solar cells (OSCs) have attracted great attention in terms of power supply in wearable electronic systems. Here, ultrathin and ultra-lightweight OSCs, with a total thickness of less than 3 mu m, with excellent mechanical properties in terms of their flexibility and ability to be stretched are demonstrated. A stabilized power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 15.5% and unprecedented power-per-weight of 32.07 W g(-1) at a weight of 4.83 g m(-2) is achieved, which represents one of the best-performing OSCs based on ultrathin foils substrate reported to date. The ternary strategy introduces the third component of amorphous conformation of the PC71BM molecule, which can slightly reduce crystallization and aggregates without decreasing the electron mobility, thereby reducing rigidity and brittleness of the active layer. The increase in the ductility of the active layer significantly improves the mechanical flexibility of the device, resulting in over 90% retention in the PCE after 200 stretching-compression cycles. In addition, the ternary device exhibits excellent stability when stored in a N-2-filled glove box, resulting in the PCE retaining over 95% of its initial efficiency even after 1000 h. This ultraflexible and ultra-lightweight photo-voltaic foils constitute a major step toward the integration of power supply into malleable electronic textiles.

Automated summary

This study demonstrates ultra-thin and ultra-lightweight organic solar cells with excellent mechanical properties and high efficiency. By introducing a third component, the rigidity and brittleness of the active layer are reduced, achieving high flexibility.