A flexible semitransparent photovoltaic supercapacitor based on water-processed MXene electrodes

Abstract

Solar energy, although it has the highest power density available in terms of renewable energy, has the drawback of being erratic. Integrating an energy harvesting and storage device into photovoltaic energy storage modules is a viable route for obtaining self-powered energy systems. Herein, an MXene-based all-solution processed semitransparent flexible photovoltaic supercapacitor (PSC) was fabricated by integrating a flexible organic photovoltaic (OPV) with Ti₃C₂T_x MXene as the electrode and transparent MXene supercapacitors with an organic ionogel as the electrolyte in the vertical direction, using Ti₃C₂T_x thin film as a common electrode. In the quest for a semitransparent flexible PSC, Ti₃C₂T_x MXene was first used as a transparent electrode for OPV with a high power conversion efficiency of 13.6%. The ionogel electrolyte-based transparent MXene supercapacitor shows a high volumetric capacitance of 502 F cm⁻³ and excellent stability. Finally, a flexible PSC with a high average transmittance of over 33.5% was successfully constructed by all-solution processing and a remarkable storage efficiency of 88% was achieved. This strategy enables a simple route for fabricating MXene based high-performance all-solution-processed flexible PSCs, which is important for realizing flexible and printable electronics for future technologies.