Printed Organic Photovoltaics for Indoor Light Energy Harvesting

For a long time, the researchers in the organic photovoltaics (OPV) field focused on matching the high power conversion efficiency of silicon solar cells under the sunlight for outdoor applications. However, the emergence of indoor electronic devices for the internet of things has spurred the scientific community to focus on the efficient conversion of indoor light into electricity. As a result, the OPVs outperform silicon solar cells with efficiencies approaching 30% under indoor lighting. In this presentation, I will highlight the key features and challenges of indoor OPVs and present a demonstration of integrated OPV-based indoor light sensor and energy harvester for smart building applications.