Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are an emerging photovoltaic technology that promises to offer facile and efficient solar power generation to meet future energy needs. PSCs have received considerable attention in recent years, have attained power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) over 22%, and are a promising candidate to potentially replace the current photovoltaic technology. The emergence of PSCs has revolutionized photovoltaic research and development because of their high efficiencies, inherent flexibility, the diversity of materials/synthetic methods that can be employed to manufacture them, and the various possible device architectures. Further optimization of material compositions and device architectures will help further improve efficiency and device stability. Moreover, the search for new functional materials will allow for mitigation of the existing limitations of PSCs. This review covers the recently developed advanced techniques and research trends related to this emerging photovoltaic technology, with a focus on the diversity of functional materials used for the various layers of PSC devices, novel PSC architectures, methods that increase overall cell efficiency, and substrates that allow for enhanced device flexibility.

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Advancements in dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) technology are occurring at an everincreasing rate, as the development of novel carbon-based materials, the increasing research into new 3D surface morphologies and cell design, and the focus on the development of new sensitizers and electrolytes have allowed many new possibilities for DSSCs. Solar cells that are three-dimensionally structured offer significant advantages over traditional crystalline / semicrystalline panels in that they can convert incident photons that strike them at large incident angles, can be flexible / used in applications which require non-rigid materials, and can be substantially cheaper to produce than traditional panels, especially with the replacement of more expensive, traditional electrode materials by carbon materials in the working / counter electrode.The use of carefully selected and engineered sensitizers like quantum dots with these threedimensionally structured solar cells have seen them achieve ever-increasing power conversion efficiencies, and it's likely that they will soon rival traditional crystalline / semi-crystalline panels for both mass power generation and use in more niche applications such as flexible photovoltaic textile fibers. This review covers DSSCs constructed with several different materials, and the advantages and disadvantages of a variety of cell designs.

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Flexible polymer–metal oxide nanocomposites with multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) films are fabricated using poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) as the bulk matrix material with three‐dimensional (3D) lithium‐doped zinc oxide (Li‐ZnO) as a filler. Li‐ZnO is synthesized hydrothermally followed by surface modification with polyethylene glycol (PEG). PEG coating serves as an effective solution for avoiding costly electrical poling and enhances the proportion of the PVDF β phase, while MWCNTs act to increase conductivity and to reinforce the composite during mechanical stressing. The piezoelectric composite is fabricated with 12 wt% surface‐modified Li‐ZnO with 0.2 wt% MWCNT relative to the bulk PVDF. The fabricated composite is tested with different body motions and in different environments. The highest obtained value of open circuit voltage is 10.1 V and 2740 µA amperometric alternating current with bending motions. It is also observed that the electrical signal fluctuates by ≈200 µA due to microrelaxation and microstressing under constant stress conditions. The piezoelectric nanocomposite shows a linear response to a gradual increase in normal stress.