A flexible fiber-shaped hybrid cell with a photoactive gel electrolyte for concurrent solar energy harvesting and charge storage

Fiber-shaped solar energy harvesting and storage devices are promising flexible hybrid systems for next-generation wearable electronics. Here, three flexible fiber-shaped hybrid devices were designed and fabricated by twisting two different conductive threads as electrodes and a photoactive polyaniline (PANI)-based gel electrolyte. For two of the devices, conductive threads, one coated with Ag and another coated with carbon nanotube (CNT), were used as the anode electrodes with different work functions. In the third device, ZnO nanowires (NWs) were grown on the CNT coated threads as the electron transport layer (ETL) on the anode. The highest capacitance was found to be 10.1 mF cm(-1) (69.7 mF g(-1)) in device with the anode made of Ny66-Ag/CNT, while a photovoltage of 37 mV was measured in the device with the ETL when exposed to light for 400 s. The current results provide a new design strategy with a flexible structure and simple fabrication process for the fiber-shaped hybrid devices with the dual properties of energy harvesting and storage.

Automated summary

In this study, three flexible fiber-shaped hybrid devices were designed and fabricated using twisting conductive threads as electrodes and a photoactive polyaniline-based gel electrolyte. These devices demonstrated the dual properties of energy harvesting and storage. The highest capacitance was achieved in the device with the anode made of Ny66-Ag/CNT, while the device with the electron transport layer (ETL) exhibited a photovoltage of 37 mV when exposed to light for 400 s.