Emerging Organic and Organic/Inorganic Hybrid Photovoltaic Devices for Specialty Applications: Low‐Level‐Lighting Energy Conversion and Biomedical Treatment

Abstract

This article reviews the progress made in emerging photovoltaic devices, including dye‐sensitized solar cells, organic solar cells, and perovskite solar cells, for specialty applications. Because they all feature tunable band structures, which can be modified through molecular design and/or altered compositions, the properties of emerging photovoltaic devices can be tailored to fit the special requirements of a particular application. For instance, they can be designed according to the emission spectrum of an artificial light source (e.g., fluorescence lamp and white light‐emitting diode), thereby efficiently converting the indoor lighting to electricity. Furthermore, because there exists a near‐infrared window—ranging from 650 to 1350 nm—in which photons can penetrate deeply into tissues, the absorption bands of these photovoltaic devices can be tailored specially to this therapeutic window to harvest tissue‐penetrating light, thereby wirelessly providing power to biomedical devices positioned beneath the skin. The rapid progress made in these two representative areas suggests further promising applications of such emerging photovoltaic devices.

Silicon nanocrystal hybrid photovoltaic devices for indoor light energy harvesting

“…A typical fullerene-based OPV has been reported to exceed a PCE of 10% under a simulated indoor light source. [33][34][35][36][37][38][39] Also, the SiNC-HPVs can be a potential energy harvesting device for indoor IoT applications.…”

“…[28][29][30] In recent years, due to the rapid development of IoT (Internet of Things) related technology, the number of IoT devices has dramatically increased. 31,32 Many type of printable PV devices such as OPVs, [33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42] dye-sensitized solar cells 43,44 and perovskite solar cells 45,46 have been explored for indoor applications, OPVs are especially expected to be used as an energy harvesting system for IoT devices because of their potential for low power operation, independent and distributed applications, high portability and device designability. In this study, we successfully demonstrated SiNC-HPVs with PCE as high as 9.7% and power density of 34.0 mW cm À2 under standard indoor light irradiation (1000 lx).…”

Thin Films Based on Cobalt Phthalocyanine:C60 Fullerene:ZnO Hybrid Nanocomposite Obtained by Laser Evaporation

“…Hybrid nanocomposites, materials that combine the advantages of both organic and inorganic components, have currently received increased interest due to their potential applications in a large variety of technological areas such as optics, electronics, energy, medicine [1][2][3][4]. In the field of electronics, the organics are particularly appealing due to the possibility of tuning their properties through the corresponding molecular design according to required functionalities [4] while the inorganic materials are attractive especially for their stability and high mobility [5]. Additionally, the organic compounds are highly flexible and compatible with plastic substrates, being the most suitable candidates for wearable electronics [4].…”

“…In the field of electronics, the organics are particularly appealing due to the possibility of tuning their properties through the corresponding molecular design according to required functionalities [4] while the inorganic materials are attractive especially for their stability and high mobility [5]. Additionally, the organic compounds are highly flexible and compatible with plastic substrates, being the most suitable candidates for wearable electronics [4].…”

Virtual Screening of Conjugated Polymers for Organic Photovoltaic Devices Using Support Vector Machines and Ensemble Learning

“…Organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices have been attracting much attention because of their advantageous properties, including light weight, mechanical flexibility, low material and fabrication cost, and short energy payback times [1][2][3][4]. Apart from traditional solar panels, possible applications of OPV devices also include power generators for wearable electronics, portable devices, and the Internet of things (IoTs) [5][6][7][8][9][10]. The state-of-the-art OPV devices are prepared based on the concept of "bulk heterojunction."…”