Textile-based dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) can be created by building the necessary layers on a textile fabric or around fibers which are afterwards used to prepare a textile layer, typically by weaving. Another approach is using electrospun nanofiber mats as one or more layers. In this work, electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofiber mats coated by a conductive polymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiopene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) were used to produce the counter electrodes for half-textile DSSCs. The obtained efficiencies were comparable with the efficiencies of pure glass-based DSSCs and significantly higher than the efficiencies of DSSCs with cotton based counter electrodes. The efficiency could be further increased by increasing the number of PEDOT:PSS layers on the counter electrode. Additionally, the effect of the post treatment of the conductive layers by HCl, acetic acid, or dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) on the DSSC efficiencies was investigated. Only the treatment by HCl resulted in a slight improvement of the energy-conversion efficiency.
Electrochromic devices can act as passive displays. They change their color when a low voltage is applied. Flexible and bendable hybrid textile-film electrochromic devices with poly-3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) were prepared on polyethylene polyethylene terephthalate (PEPES) membranes using a spray coating technique. The electrolyte consisted of a gelatin glycerol mixture as host matrix and calcium chloride. Titanium dioxide was used as an ion storage layer and a carbon containing dispersion was used for the counter electrode on a polyester rip-stop fabric. The sheet resistance of PEDOT:PSS on PEPES was 500 Ohm/sq. A 5 × 5 electrochromic matrix with individually addressable pixels was successfully designed and assembled. The switching time of the pixels was 2 s at a voltage of 2.0 V directly after assembling. The use of titanium dioxide as ion storage also increased the contrast of the dark-blue reduced electrochromic layer. Coloration was not self-sustaining. The PEDOT:PSS layer needed a constant low voltage of at least 0.5 V to sustain in the dark-blue reduced state. The switching time increased with time. After 12 months the switching time was ~4 s at a voltage of 2.8 V. The addition of glycerol into the electrolyte extended the lifetime of a non-encapsulated textile electrochromic cell, because moisture is retained in the electrolyte. Charge carriers can be transported into and out of the electrochromic layer.
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