title: All-Weather Solar Cells: A Rising Photovoltaic Revolution.
abstract: Solar cells have been considered as one of the foremost solutions to energy and environmental problems because of clean, high efficiency, cost-effective, and inexhaustible features. The historical development and state-of-the-art solar cells mainly focus on elevating photoelectric conversion efficiency upon direct sunlight illumination. It is still a challenging problem to realize persistent high-efficiency power generation in rainy, foggy, haze, and dark-light conditions (night). The physical proof-of-concept for all-weather solar cells opens a door for an upcoming photovoltaic revolution. Our group has been exploring constructive routes to build all-weather solar cells so that these advanced photovoltaic technologies can be an indication for global solar industry in bringing down the cost of energy harvesting. How the all-weather solar cells are built without reducing photo performances and why such architectures can realize electricity outputs with no visible-light are discussed. Potential pathways and opportunities to enrich all-weather solar cell families are envisaged. The aspects discussed here may enable researchers to develop undiscovered abilities and to explore wide applications of advanced photovoltaics.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, Ocean University of China, No 238 Songling Road, Laoshan District, Qingdao, 266100, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Qunwei
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Tang
keywords: all-weather solar cells; alloys; energy conversion; graphene; photovoltaic devices