We fabricate near-infrared absorbing organic photovoltaics that are highly transparent to visible light. By optimizing near-infrared optical-interference, we demonstrate power efficiencies of 1.3±0.1% with simultaneous average visible transmission of >65%. Subsequent incorporation of near-infrared distributed-Bragg-reflector mirrors leads to an increase in the efficiency to 1.7±0.1%, approaching the 2.4±0.2% efficiency of the opaque cell, while maintaining high visible-transparency of >55%. Finally, we demonstrate that a series-integrated array of these transparent cells is capable of powering electronic devices under near-ambient lighting. This architecture suggests strategies for high-efficiency power-generating windows and highlights an application uniquely benefiting from excitonic electronics.

Transparent, near-infrared organic photovoltaic solar cells for window and energy-scavenging applications

A critical review on semitransparent organic solar cells

Wearable devices provide an alternative pathway to clinical diagnostics by exploiting various physical, chemical and biological sensors to mine physiological (biophysical and/or biochemical) information in real time (preferably, continuously) and in a non-invasive or minimally invasive manner. These sensors can be worn in the form of glasses, jewellery, face masks, wristwatches, fitness bands, tattoo-like devices, bandages or other patches, and textiles. Wearables such as smartwatches have already proved their capability for the early detection and monitoring of the progression and treatment of various diseases, such as COVID-19 and Parkinson disease, through biophysical signals. Next-generation wearable sensors that enable the multimodal and/or multiplexed measurement of physical parameters and biochemical markers in real time and continuously could be a transformative technology for diagnostics, allowing for high-resolution and time-resolved historical recording of the health status of an individual. In this Review, we examine the building blocks of such wearable sensors, including the substrate materials, sensing mechanisms, power modules and decision-making units, by reflecting on the recent developments in the materials, engineering and data science of these components. Finally, we synthesize current trends in the field to provide predictions for the future trajectory of wearable sensors. 

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End-to-end design of wearable sensors

Organic photovoltaics (OPVs) have progressed steadily through three stages of photoactive materials development: (i) use of poly(3-hexylthiophene) and fullerene-based acceptors (FAs) for optimizing bulk heterojunctions; (ii) development of new donors to better match with FAs; (iii) development of non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs). The development and application of NFAs with an A-D-A configuration (where A = acceptor and D = donor) has enabled devices to have efficient charge generation and small energy losses (Eloss < 0.6 eV), resulting in substantially higher power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) than FA-based devices. The discovery of Y6-type acceptors (Y6 = 2,2'-((2Z,2'Z)-((12,13-bis(2-ethylhexyl)-3,9-diundecyl-12,13-dihydro-[1,2,5]-thiadiazolo[3,4-e]-thieno[2″,3″:4',5']thieno-[2',3':4,5]pyrrolo-[3,2-g]thieno-[2',3':4,5]thieno-[3,2-b]indole-2,10-diyl)bis(methanylylidene))bis(5,6-difluoro-3-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-indene-2,1-diylidene))dimalononitrile) with an A-DA' D-A configuration has further propelled the PCEs to go beyond 15% due to smaller Eloss values (∼0.5 eV) and higher external quantum efficiencies. Subsequently, the PCEs of Y6-series single-junction devices have increased to >19% and may soon approach 20%. This review provides an update of recent progress of OPV in the following aspects: developments of novel NFAs and donors, understanding of the structure-property relationships and underlying mechanisms of state-of-the-art OPVs, and tasks underpinning the commercialization of OPVs, such as device stability, module development, potential applications, and high-throughput manufacturing. Finally, an outlook and prospects section summarizes the remaining challenges for the further development of OPV technology.

Renewed Prospects for Organic Photovoltaics.

Wide Bandgap Polymer with Narrow Photon Harvesting in Visible Light Range Enables Efficient Semitransparent Organic Photovoltaics

Semitransparent organic solar cells (ST-OSCs) have been regarded as a promising candidate for building integrated photovoltaics. In general, most of the ST-OSCs are based on a bulk heterojunction (BHJ) structure in which the morphology of the BHJ film must be delicately optimized. In this work, we introduce a sequentially deposited bilayer structure into ST-OSCs by using a PTB7-Th/IEICO-4F combination. The adoption of the bilayer structure not only simplifies the device optimization, but it is also found that, as the donor and the acceptor are separately deposited, the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of bilayer ST-OSCs can be improved by simply increasing the thickness of IEICO-4F, which has strong near infrared absorption but weak visible light absorption, without significantly affecting the average visible light transmittance (AVT) of the device. However, in the BHJ structure, the increase in BHJ film thickness unavoidably enhances the donor absorption in the visible light region, leading to a tradeoff between the PCE and AVT in BHJ-structured ST-OSCs. Eventually, the bilayer-structured device exhibits a better overall performance than the BHJ-structured device, e.g., a PCE of 8.5% for the bilayer structure versus a PCE of 8.1% for the BHJ structure with an AVT around 21%. Our findings indicate that the sequentially deposited bilayer structure, aside from its easy processing characteristics, also has great potential for preparing high-performance ST-OSCs.

Semitransparent Organic Solar Cells Enabled by a Sequentially Deposited Bilayer Structure.

Semitransparent organic solar cells (ST‐OSCs) have promising prospects for building or vehicle integrated solar energy harvesting with energy generation and see‐through function. How to achieve both an adequate average visible transmittance (AVT) and high‐power conversion efficiency (PCE) is always the key issue. Herein, a simple but effective strategy for constructing high performance ST‐OSCs by introducing a small molecule [2‐(9‐H‐Carbazol‐9‐yl) ethyl] phosphonic acid (2PACz) into a low‐donor content active layer is reported. The fill factor is improved from 70.5% to 75.5% and correlated to the mitigated charge recombination and strengthened charge extraction, further ascribed to the enhanced build‐in potential, reduced charge transport resistance, and favorable film morphology. By combining the unique nature of 2PACz, that can spontaneously form in situ self‐organized hole transport interlayers under bulk‐heterojunction films, PEDOT‐free ST‐OSCs with a PCE of 15.2%, amongst the highest values in this field, is achieved with an AVT of 19.2%. Moreover, an outstanding light utilization efficiency of 3.39% is also obtained with an AVT of 30.0% and a PCE of 11.3% in a translucent device by tuning the electrode. The work demonstrates a new and simple strategy for achieving excellent AVT and PCE in ST‐OSCs with simplified device structure.

Semitransparent Organic Solar Cells with Efficiency Surpassing 15%

Photodetection in the visible and near-infrared (NIR) spectral regions offers a wide range of applications, such as image arrays of high pixel density and artificial intelligence. In this work, broadband organic photodiodes (OPDs) are developed with performance comparable to that of crystalline silicon-based commercial devices. Through the strategy of combining an NIR-absorbing non-fullerene acceptor and a thick junction, the resulting devices show significantly improved performance parameters, with a suppressed dark current density of 0.35 nA/cm2, an enhanced spectral response covering 300–1000 nm, and external quantum efficiency over 60% el/ph. Owing to the low dark current noise and high responsivity to NIR wavelengths, an unexpectedly high specific detectivity of 5.1 × 1013 Jones at 930 nm is obtained together with a linear dynamic range of 157  dB and a −3  dB cutoff frequency of 4.5  kHz. These results reveal that the NIR OPD has great potential for 2D and 3D imaging applications with a high frame rate and multiple band selection.

Visible-to-near-infrared organic photodiodes with performance comparable to commercial silicon-based detectors

In-situ self-organized anode interlayer enables organic solar cells with simultaneously simplified processing and greatly improved efficiency to 17.8%

To achieve adhesive and conformable wearable electronics, improving stretchable transparent electrode (STE) becomes an indispensable bottleneck needed to be addressed. Here, we adopt a nonuniform Young’s modulus structure with silver nanowire (AgNW) and fabricate a STE layer. This layer possesses transparency of >88% over a wide spectrum range of 400–1000 nm, sheet resistance below 20 Ω sq−1, stretchability of up to 100%, enhanced mechanical robustness, low surface roughness, and good interfacial wettability for solution process. As a result of all these properties, the STE enables the fabrication of a highly efficient ultraflexible wearable device comprising of both organic photovoltaic (OPV) and organic photodetector (OPD) parts with high mechanical durability and conformability, for energy-harvesting and biomedical-sensing applications, respectively. This demonstrates the great potential of the integration of OPVs and OPDs, capable of harvesting energy independently for biomedical applications, paving the way to a future of independent conformable wearable OPV/OPDs for different applications.

Yu Song

Papers

Semitransparent Organic Solar Cells Enabled by a Sequentially Deposited Bilayer Structure.

Semitransparent Organic Solar Cells with Efficiency Surpassing 15%

Visible-to-near-infrared organic photodiodes with performance comparable to commercial silicon-based detectors

In-situ self-organized anode interlayer enables organic solar cells with simultaneously simplified processing and greatly improved efficiency to 17.8%

Stretchable transparent electrodes for conformable wearable organic photovoltaic devices