Fiber Solar Cells from High Performances Towards Real Applications

The evolution of electronic systems towards small, flexible, portable and human-centered forms drives the demand for on-body power supplies with lightweight and high flexibility. Fiber solar cells that can be integrated into soft and lightweight textiles are considered as potential sustainable power sources for the next generation of wearable electronics. To this end, they have been extensively investigated in the past decade aiming to improve their photovoltaic performances, but there is still a big gap between the high-performance devices and real applications. Herein, the key advances of configurations, fabrications and performances of fiber solar cells are highlighted and analyzed. Based on the current progress, the latest ideas with regard to the remaining challenges and opportunities beyond the reach of the previous studies are presented.