Manufacturing solar fabrics by electronic dyeing of textiles with 2D heterostructures

电子设备和先进传感器的快速发展，加上对全球变暖的日益关注，推动了对便携式、轻量化和灵活电源的需求，以使我们的建筑物智能化，并使我们的便携式设备独立于电网。为此，必须开发低维护、高效率的能源，特别是在环境条件下提供当地电力。薄膜光致变色材料提供了这样的机会，并且适用于任何表面或设备。各种环境光光伏技术被研究用于从室内光收集能量。太阳能电池板传统上由光伏器件制成，并且大多数刚性材料（例如玻璃）用作基板。然而，这对于室内使用来说并不理想和实用。最近，太阳能织物正被用于建筑集成和内部能量收集。集成到纺织品中的光伏器件也可以用作便携式电源，当与袋子，布料等结合时，需要对材料开发和制造进行更多的研究，以使这种技术更接近应用。为了赋予纺织品光伏能力，必须在保持纺织品柔软、可拉伸特性以及最终用户期望的外观和感觉的同时，集成电子功能。然而，将这种复杂的功能集成到纺织品中，与在玻璃或甚至塑料柔性基底的平坦表面上制造光伏器件有很大的不同，这是由于编织织物的多孔3D结构。该提案涉及与使用2D材料制造太阳能织物相关的新兴产品的制造。自从石墨烯的分离以来，二维（2D）材料的类别已经扩展，现在包括具有各种原子结构和物理性质的各种材料。对于太阳能电池特别感兴趣的是半导体过渡金属二硫族化物（TMDC），其带隙范围从光谱的可见光到近红外部分（1.1至2.0 eV），并且每单位厚度的吸收系数显著更高（大于Si、GaAs和钙钛矿）。这些特性使其非常适合用于建筑和室内应用以及对重量轻或便携性要求很高的应用中的高吸收率光伏器件。拟议的研究将开发基于2D材料的太阳能织物的纺织兼容制造，包括半导体TMDC作为活性层和高导电性石墨烯作为电极。一个关键的成就是开发了制造工艺，可以很容易地从原型转化为生产，使太阳能纺织品成为真实的产品，而不是概念验证。迄今为止，在纺织品上使用高性能光活性材料已经提供了接近10%的功率转换效率。已经展示了使用2D/2D异质结作为有源层的基于2D材料的光伏器件，其表现出超过50%的外量子效率和超过90%的吸光度。在纺织品上实现如此高的功率转换效率，超过50%是这里所追求的研究的第二个关键成就。这项研究将对制造业产生影响，并在医疗保健，机器人和国防等其他领域产生影响。拟议的研究代表了电子纺织品自主性和可靠性的技术飞跃，加强了英国在电子纺织品市场的地位。拟议的研究有可能为EPSRC的各种繁荣成果做出贡献，例如“P1：引入下一代创新和颠覆性技术”，“P2：确保为国家需求提供负担得起的解决方案”，“C2：实现物联网的转型发展和使用”和“R1：实现能源安全和效率”。

The rapid development of electronic devices and advanced sensors coupled with increasing concerns on global warming are driving requirements for portable, lightweight and flexible power sources to make our buildings smart and our portable devices independent from electricity grids. To this end, it is crucial to develop low-maintenance highly efficient energy sources that can provide local power, especially in ambient conditions. Thin-film photovoltaics offers such opportunity and are adaptable to any surface or device. Various ambient light photovoltaic technologies are investigated for harvesting energy from indoor light. Solar panels are traditionally made of photovoltaic devices and mostly rigid materials such as glass are used as substrates. However, this is not ideal and practical for indoor use. Recently, solar fabrics are being pursued for building integrated and interior energy harvesting. Photovoltaic devices integrated into textiles can also be used as portable power sources when coupled with bags, cloths, etc. However, more research into material development and manufacturing is needed to bring such technology closer to applications. To endow textiles with photovoltaic capability, it is essential to integrate the electronic functionality while maintaining the soft, stretchable properties of the textile, and the look and feel the end-user expects. Integrating such sophisticated function into textiles, however, is vastly different from fabrication of photovoltaic devices on the flat surfaces of glass or even plastic flexible substrates due to the porous, 3D structure of woven fabrics. This proposal addresses the manufacturing of new and emerging products related to the use of 2D materials for solar fabrics. The class of two-dimensional (2D) materials has expanded since since the isolation of graphene and now includes a great diversity of materials with various atomic structure and physical properties. Of particular interest for solar cells are the semiconducting transition metal di-chalcogenide (TMDC), with a band-gap ranging from visible to near infrared part of the spectrum (1.1 to 2.0 eV) and a significantly higher absorption coefficient per unit thickness (greater than Si, GaAs, and perovskites). These properties makes them extremely suitable for highly absorbing ultrathin photovoltaic devices for architectural and indoor applications and applications where lightweight or portability is highly desirable.The proposed research will develop textile-compatible manufacturing of solar fabrics based on 2D materials including semiconducting TMDCs as active layers and highly conductive graphene as electrodes. One key achievement is to develop manufacturing processes that easily translate from prototyping to production to enable solar textiles to become real products rather than proofs-of-concept. To date, the use of high performance photoactive materials on textiles has provided power conversion efficiency approaching 10%. Photovoltaic devices based on 2D materials using 2D/2D heterojunctions as active layers have been demonstrated, exhibiting external quantum efficiencies exceeding 50% and absorbance exceeding 90%. Achieving such high power conversion efficiencies on textiles, above 50% is the second key achievement for the investigations pursued here. This research will have impact and make a difference in the manufacturing area but also in other sectors such as healthcare, robotics and defence. The proposed research represents a technology leap towards autonomy and reliability of e-textile, reinforcing UK's position in e-textile markets. The proposed research has the potential to contribute various EPSRC prosperity outcomes such as "P1: Introduce the next generation of innovative and disruptive technologies", "P2: Ensure affordable solutions for national needs", "C2: Achieve transformational development and use of the Internet of Things" and "R1: Achieve energy security and efficiency".