Cotton-textile-enabled flexible self-sustaining power packs via roll-to-roll fabrication

TLDR

Rising energy concerns demand efficient, green conversion and storage devices, and while solar cells can harness abundant sunlight, their intermittent output necessitates pairing with compatible storage to achieve a stable power supply. The study aims to develop a solar cell–supercapacitor hybrid that integrates highly efficient supercapacitors with solar cells to mitigate power fluctuations. A high‑performance cotton‑textile‑enabled asymmetric supercapacitor is integrated with a flexible solar cell using a scalable roll‑to‑roll manufacturing approach to create a self‑sustaining power pack. The resulting hybrid device demonstrates continuous power capability, indicating its potential to power future electronic devices.

Abstract

With rising energy concerns, efficient energy conversion and storage devices are required to provide a sustainable, green energy supply. Solar cells hold promise as energy conversion devices due to their utilization of readily accessible solar energy; however, the output of solar cells can be non-continuous and unstable. Therefore, it is necessary to combine solar cells with compatible energy storage devices to realize a stable power supply. To this end, supercapacitors, highly efficient energy storage devices, can be integrated with solar cells to mitigate the power fluctuations. Here, we report on the development of a solar cell-supercapacitor hybrid device as a solution to this energy requirement. A high-performance, cotton-textile-enabled asymmetric supercapacitor is integrated with a flexible solar cell via a scalable roll-to-roll manufacturing approach to fabricate a self-sustaining power pack, demonstrating its potential to continuously power future electronic devices.