A photovoltaic textile design with a stainless steel mesh fabric

Borazan I., BEDELOĞLU A., Demir A.

JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL TEXTILES, vol.51, no.10, pp.1527-1538, 2022 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Review
  • Volume: 51 Issue: 10
  • Publication Date: 2022
  • Doi Number: 10.1177/1528083720904053
  • Journal Name: JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL TEXTILES
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Business Source Elite, Business Source Premier, Compendex
  • Page Numbers: pp.1527-1538
  • Keywords: Wearable electronics, flexible photovoltaics, solar textiles, organic photovoltaics, conductive fabric
  • Dokuz Eylül University Affiliated: No

Abstract

Solar energy is one of the most popular energy sources among the other renewable energies. Photovoltaic technology is a clean way to generate electricity from sunlight. Flexible photovoltaics enable portable electronic devices to power at off-grid conditions. Stainless steel mesh fabric was used as a substrate and electrode allowing the light to reach the photoactive layer. The photoactive layer and hole transport layer were deposited by the means of dip-coating like in the textile industry. The metal back electrode was evaporated in a thermal evaporator under vacuum. Promising results were obtained from photovoltaic measurements. About 0.69% power conversion efficiency was obtained from textile-based solar cells in this study. The textile-based metal fabric enables a flexible photovoltaic structure that can be integrated on non-planar surfaces to generate electricity, and also mesh structure allows the light to reach the photoactive layer.