Highly efficient and stable solid-state fiber dye-sensitized solar cells with Ag-decorated SiO2 nanoparticles

Fiber-shaped dye-sensitized solar cells (FDSSCs) represent promising futuristic flexible or wearable power sources, owing to their simple fabrication process, light weight, weavability, and wearability. Along with strategies on changing the properties of semiconductor materials, the effects of incorporating silver-embedded SiO2 nanoparticles (Ag@SiO2 NPs) on the photoanodes of solid-state FDSSCs (SS-FDSSCs) are investigated. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of SS-FDSSCs with Ag@SiO2 NPs reaches 5.38%, which is comparable to the reference (3.98%). The PCEs remain at 95% between −16.9 to 91.7 °C, indicating the operational stability of SS-FDSSCs within this temperature range. The fabricated SS-FDSSCs, whose radii were 2 mm, maintains more than 90% of their efficiency over 500 bending cycles and 10 washing cycles.