Color and transparency-switchable semitransparent polymer solar cells towards smart windows

Mengnan Yao; Tengfei Li; Yongbing Long; Ping Shen; Guoxin Wang; Chenglong Li; Junshi Liu; Wenbin Guo; Yufei Wang; Liang Shen; Xiaowei Zhan

doi:10.1016/j.scib.2019.11.002

Color and transparency-switchable semitransparent polymer solar cells towards smart windows

Sci Bull (Beijing). 2020 Feb 15;65(3):217-224. doi: 10.1016/j.scib.2019.11.002. Epub 2019 Nov 6.

Authors

Mengnan Yao¹, Tengfei Li², Yongbing Long³, Ping Shen¹, Guoxin Wang¹, Chenglong Li¹, Junshi Liu¹, Wenbin Guo¹, Yufei Wang¹, Liang Shen⁴, Xiaowei Zhan⁵

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Integrated Optoelectronics, College of Electronic Science and Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China.
² Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, Key Laboratory of Polymer Chemistry and Physics of Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
³ School of Electronic Engineering, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Integrated Optoelectronics, College of Electronic Science and Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China. Electronic address: shenliang@jlu.edu.cn.
⁵ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, Key Laboratory of Polymer Chemistry and Physics of Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China. Electronic address: xwzhan@pku.edu.cn.

PMID: 36659175
DOI: 10.1016/j.scib.2019.11.002

Abstract

Semitransparent polymer solar cells (ST-PSCs) have attracted worldwide attention owing to unique superiority in multiple utilization of incident light. However, the color of ST-PSCs is relatively uniform after fabrication, cannot be dynamically tuned in terms of application requirement. Herein, we demonstrate a high-efficiency ST-PSCs as a smart window, which can be reversibly switched on and off by a gasochromic tungsten trioxide/platinum (WO₃/Pt) back reflector layer. The ST-PSCs can be switchable between colored and bleached states with fast response speed of sub-second during hydrogen exposure. Meanwhile, the color and transparency-switching enable light trapping enhancement in long wavelength range, which can systematically improve power conversion efficiency (PCE). As a result, the ST-PSCs contribute a PCE of 10.2% and 9.1% as well as corresponding average visible transmission (AVT) of 25.4% and 33.8% at colored state and bleached state, respectively, which can meet the visual aesthetics requirement well in building integrated photovoltaics. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first example for ST-PSCs that achieve both color-switching and light trapping. Furthermore, the smart windows facing to automobile sunroof are proposed to prove a practical application towards commercialization. We believe that smart windows with gasochromic functions can promise potential opportunities and directions for the future development of ST-PSCs.

Keywords: Color and transparency-switchable; Gasochromic; Polymer solar cell; Semitransparent; Smart window.