Flexible, biodegradable and recyclable solar cells: a review

Abstract

Solar energy is conceivably the largest source of renewable energy at our disposal, but vital advances are expected to make solar cells economically viable. Biodegradable and flexible solar cells are currently under extensive investigation for environmentally-friendly electronic applications. Biomaterials based solar cell is emerging due to their sustainable, scalable, abundant, renewable, and environmentally-friendly energy production. This review highlights recent research progress in the emerging group of biomaterials and their integration for flexible solar cell devices. The more emphasis is given to the absolute recyclable solar cell technology, processing conditions and optimized processing conditions to produce a high amount of energy. This review briefly describes the recent progress in these classes of material, covering substrates and semiconductors. A prominent demand still exists for a next-generation of flexible, biodegradable and biocompatible solar cell substrate for ultimate energy generation application.