From Fiber to Fabric: Progress Towards Photovoltaic Energy Textile

Flexible solar cells are one of the most significant power sources for modern on-body electronics devices. Recently, fiber-type or fabric-type photovoltaic devices have attracted increasing attentions. Compared with conventional solar cell with planar structure, solar cells with fiber or fabric structure have shown remarkable flexibility and deformability for weaving into almost any shape and assembling with any portable electronic equipment as a sustainable power supply. This review comprehensively summarizes the recent progress of wearable fiber-type and fabric-type solar cells as well as its applications in hybrid energy textiles. For solar cells of dye-sensitized type, organic type and perovskite type, the discussion involves working mechanism, structural design, material selection, preparation technology and potential applications. In addition, challenges and technical difficulties that may hinder its large-scale commercial application are also summarized and discussed. It is hoped that, this review will be of help for future researches on textile-type energy devices, to finally make it an everyday lifestyle in a near future.