LAUSR

Abstract Power supply equipment, employed in the Internet of Things (IoT) for instance, calls for efficient harvesting of solar energy from the environment sustainably. Sb2Se3 enjoys the advantages of unique one-dimensional crystal structure and low-temperature film growth, enabling the fabrication of flexible and lightweight solar cells. Therefore, Sb2Se3 solar cells are expected to have intrinsic advantages in powering IoT sensors. Herein, the device configuration and film fabrication of flexible Sb2Se3 solar cell was optimized and an efficiency up to 6.13% and power-per-weight of 2.04 W g-1 were obtained, both of which are the highest records for flexible Sb2Se3 solar cells. Benefitting from the intrinsically high flexibility of Sb2Se3 and the thin flexible substrate, our device retained 96% of its initial performance after 1000-times bending at the extremely small curvature radius of 0.5 mm. Furthermore, the first Sb2Se3 mini-module (25 cm2 area) was constructed and its application in powering a blue LED under all weather conditions and a flower monitor (IoT sensors) was demonstrated. This work opens an avenue toward flexible Sb2Se3 solar cells and points out its future research direction.