Ultra-flexible light-permeable organic solar cells for the herbal photosynthetic growth

Ultra-flexible light-permeable organic solar cells (LP-OSCs) have attracted great attentions for their potential greenhouse applications. Herein, we reported for the first time the quantitative analysis of medicinal plants, photosynthetic efficiency and content of medicinal active ingredients, to evaluate the overall performance of the ultra-flexible OSC with high-transmission by simulating the greenhouse environment. In addition, ternary active layer strategy consisting of near-infrared (NIR) alloy acceptors was utilized for the LP-OSCs to effectively solve the trade-off between photovoltaic and optical properties. As a result, high efficiency of 15.1% and 12.04% for ultra-flexible opaque cell and devices with were obtained. The LP-OSCs based on ultra-flexible electrode with hierarchically photonic architectures had low incident light angle dependence which was beneficial for complex three-dimensional curved surface applications. Moreover, medicinal plants grown under ultra-flexible LP-OSCs displayed comparable growing tendency and pharmaceutical value with those grown under direct sunlight, which were studied based on the photosynthetic efficiency and content of medicinal active ingredients. This is the first report of the quantitative analysis of the effects of LP-OSCs on plant growth. Those results paved the way for realizing high-performing ultra-flexible LP-OSCs that could selectively absorb and transmit light for power generation and plants growth.

Automated summary

The study quantitatively analyzed the performance of medicinal plants under LP-OSCs for the first time, showing that LP-OSCs have high efficiency and comparable plant growth capabilities to those grown under direct sunlight. The design of LP-OSCs has potential advantages in balancing photovoltaic and optical properties.