A Monolithic Silicon‐Mesoporous Carbon Photosupercapacitor with High Overall Photoconversion Efficiency
Taisiia Berestok, Christian Diestel, Niklas Ortlieb, Stefan W. Glunz, Anna Fischer
Abstract
Abstract Off‐grid devices require autonomous power supply systems that can be achieved via coupling a solar cell with a supercapacitor in one integrated multifunctional device that is able to harvest energy from the environment, store, and release it on demand. Herein, a straight‐forward approach is proposed to realize a monolithic photosupercapacitor rechargeable under illumination by integrating a silicon (Si) solar cell with an electrochemical double‐layer capacitor (EDLC) based on mesoporous N‐doped carbon nanospheres (MPNC) in a three‐electrode configuration, i.e., via a shared electrode. The optimized porous structure of the MPNC‐EDLC electrodes results in a high storage efficiency of 95% and a superior performance compared to an activated carbon based EDLC. When monolithically integrated with a highly compatible and technologically robust Si solar cell in a photosupercapacitor, fast charging up to 0.63 V (2.5 V for a module of four photosupercapacitors connected in series) in less than 5 s is attained even under weak illumination conditions, with an outstanding peak overall efficiency of 11.8%. These results show high potential toward the development of photorechargeable and decentralized power sources for deployed smart electronic devices.