Carbon-Electrode-Tailored All-Inorganic Perovskite Solar Cells To Harvest Solar and Water-Vapor Energy

Moisture is the worst enemy for state-of-the-art perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However, the flowing water vapor within nanoporous carbonaceous materials can create potentials. Therefore, it is a challenge to integrate water vapor and solar energies into a single PSC device. We demonstrate herein all-inorganic cesium lead bromide (CsPbBr3) solar cells tailored with carbon electrodes to simultaneously harvest solar and water-vapor energy. Upon interfacial modification and plasma treatment, the bifunctional PSCs yield a maximum power conversion efficiency up to 9.43% under one sun irradiation according to photoelectric conversion principle and a power output of 0.158 mu W with voltage of 0.35 V and current of 0.45 mu A in 80% relative humidity through the flowing potentials at the carbon/water interface. The initial efficiency is only reduced by 2% on exposing the inorganic PSC with 80% humidity over 40 days. The successful realization of physical proof-of-concept multi-energy integrated solar cells provides new opportunities of maximizing overall power output.