Flexible organic solar cells for biomedical devices

Organic solar cells (OSCs), particularly made based on solution processing methods, have made significant progress over the past decades through the concurrent evolution of organic photovoltaic materials and device engineering. Recently, high power conversion efficiencies around 18% and over 16% have been demonstrated in both rigid and flexible OSCs, respectively. While most of the OSC research has centered on efficiency and cost, their emerging and potential usages in many critical applications, particularly in biomedical fields have been rising. In this mini-review, we will briefly discuss the high-performance organic photovoltaic materials and the representative flexible OSCs to give a scope on the recent rapid development of OSCs. Besides, we will review some progress on the applications of OSCs in biomedical devices and integrated systems. The potential challenges associated with integrating OSCs for biomedical devices will be put forward. [Figure not available: see fulltext.]