The emergence of modern technologies, such as Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), the Internet-of-Things (IoT), and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications, involves the use of batteries, which pose a serious environmental risk, with billions of batteries disposed of every year. However, the combination of sensors and wireless communication devices is extremely power-hungry. Energy Harvesting (EH) is fundamental in enabling the use of low-power electronic devices that derive their energy from external sources, such as Microbial Fuel Cells (MFC), solar power, thermal and kinetic energy, among others. Plant Microbial Fuel Cell (PMFC) is a prominent clean energy source and a step towards the development of self-powered systems in indoor and outdoor environments. One of the main challenges with PMFCs is the dynamic power supply, dynamic charging rates and low-energy supply. In this paper, a PMFC-based energy harvester system is proposed for the implementation of autonomous self-powered sensor nodes with IoT and cloud-based service communication protocols. The PMFC design is specifically adapted with the proposed EH circuit for the implementation of IoT-WSN based applications. The PMFC-EH system has a maximum power point at 0.71 V, a current density of 5 mA cm − 2 , and a power density of 3.5 mW cm − 2 with a single plant. Considering a sensor node with a current consumption of 0.35 mA, the PMFC-EH green energy system allows a power autonomy for real-time data processing of IoT-based low-power WSN systems.
Inverted organic cells are promising
devices for sustainable and
low-cost future electric generation. In this work, we present the
degradation mechanisms studied in ITO/TiO
2
/PTB7:PC
70
BM/V
2
O
5
/Ag inverted organic solar cells
(iOSCs) by impedance spectroscopy (IS). Measurements were performed
on encapsulated (controlled environment) and nonencapsulated (ambient
condition) cells following their temporal evolution under AM1.5 illumination
for several voltage biases. From the impedance spectra, analyzed in
terms of resistive/capacitive equivalent circuits, we were able to
identify that the most sensitive layers inside of the device are contact
layers. According with presented, IS technique is useful for
determining the materials that have more influence on the degradation
of organic solar cells. We demonstrate that IS is a powerful technique
to identify the limiting mechanisms and to establish the limiting
materials inside of the iOSCs.
In this paper, we demonstrate that zinc oxide (ZnO) layers deposited by inkjet printing (IJP) can be successfully applied to the low-temperature fabrication of efficient inverted polymer solar cells (i-PSCs).
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