Kirigami-Based Highly Stretchable Thin Film Solar Cells That Are Mechanically Stable for More than 1000 Cycles

Abstract

Exploiting stretchable solar cells that can accommodate large strain and feature high cyclic mechanical endurance is challenging for wearable and skin-interfaced electronics application. In this work, we demonstrated such solar cells using the kirigami design. Experiments and mechanical simulations showed that the kirigami structure effectively imparted stretchability to perovskite solar cells (PSCs) through out-of-plane deformation, which significantly reduced the stress in devices. The kirigami-based PSCs with optimal geometric parameters exhibited high mechanical deformability, including stretchability (strain up to 200%), twistability (angle up to 450°), and bendability (radius down to 0.5 mm). More importantly, the kirigami PSCs revealed high mechanical endurance with almost unchanged performance even after 1000 repetitive stretching, twisting, and bending cycles. This kirigami design for stretchable PSCs presented here provides a promising strategy to achieve high deformability for solar cells as well as other optoelectronic devices.

Progress in Materials Development for Flexible Perovskite Solar Cells and Future Prospects

“…Li et al. fabricated fPSCs on ultrathin cellophane substrates and demonstrated them by using kirigami design [184] . Mechanical stability and stretchability are highly increased for these types of solar cells.…”

“…[111] In order to increase device stretchability and mechanical endurance, Li et al. employed an innovative kirigami design in fPSCs fabricated on ultrathin cellophane substrate [195] . The kirigami design reduced the stress significantly in the devices.…”

“…[111] In order to increase device stretchability and mechanical endurance, Li et al employed an innovative kirigami design in fPSCs fabricated on ultrathin cellophane substrate. [195] The kirigami design reduced the stress significantly in the devices. So, when the fPSCs are subjected to stretching (strain up to 200 %), twisting (angle up to 4500), and bending (radius down to 0.5 mm), the performance of the devices remains stable.…”

“…Li et al fabricated fPSCs on ultrathin cellophane substrates and demonstrated them by using kirigami design. [184] Mechanical stability and stretchability are highly increased for these types of solar cells. Zhu et al reported fPSC based on bambooderived flexible, lightweight, and biocompatible cellulose nanofibril (CNF) substrates (Figure 9).…”

Flexible/Stretchable Supercapacitors with Novel Functionality for Wearable Electronics

“…In addition to functionality, flexibility and stretchability are desired attributes of the components of wearable electronics so that the electronics can exhibit mechanical stability against deformation due to human motions without a deterioration in performance. Many flexible/stretchable devices were developed for integration into wearable devices such as various sensors including bio‐signal [ 1–3 ] and environmental sensors, [ 4,5 ] solar cells, [ 6,7 ] energy harvesters, [ 8 ] antennas, [ 9,10 ] and radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. [ 11 ] Moreover, together with other flexible/stretchable devices, energy storage devices used for powering the active devices on wearable electronics should also be able to withstand deformation.…”