Hybrid Energy Harvesting Solar Cells - From Principles to Applications

Photovoltaics are one of the strategic solutions to solve energy and environmental problems. The state-of-the-art solar cells always photo-induce electrons and generate electricity by the photovoltaic effect under the illumination of sunlight or indoor light, but the power output is still extremely low in dark-light or nonluminous conditions such as rainfall and night. The hybrid energy harvesting solar cells that can persistently output electricity in multiple weather are expected to further increase total power output and generating time. This perspective focuses on discussing the coupling principles of photovoltaic effect with hydrovoltaic effect, triboelectric effect, light storing-emitting effect, piezoelectric effect and thermoelectric effect in hybrid energy harvesting solar cells and summarizing the recent advances of these novel solar cells as well as analyzing the future development of this field.