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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Kezia SasitharanORCiD, Professor Marina FreitagORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2026 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society. Indoor photovoltaics (IPVs) can significantly reduce reliance on disposable batteries in Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Yet, most evaluations use idealized lighting setups and single performance metrics, neglecting the influence of real indoor environments on device performance. This Perspective advances a deployment-centered approach: (i) realistic testing under mixed or hybrid lighting (daylight + artificial); (ii) intelligent integration that aligns absorber bandgap, series-connected cells, geometric fill factor, and power management integrated circuits with workloads and duty cycles; and (iii) IoT-ready stability assessed under the same realistic indoor scenes and light/dark sequences. We propose a compact field-to-lab pipeline, translate it into voltage-matching design rules, and use photon-to-compute metrics to link harvested power to on-device sensing and learning. The goal is low-maintenance, battery-free nodes that scale reliably in buildings, logistics, and wearable applications─ultimately cutting electronic waste.
Author(s): Grandhi GK, Damien B, Skafi Z, Sasitharan K, Kanaan H, Alkhatib H, Dkhil SB, Carnie MJ, Freitag M, Brown TM, Vivo P
Publication type: Review
Publication status: Published
Journal: ACS Energy Letters
Year: 2026
Volume: 11
Issue: 3
Pages: 2474-2490
Print publication date: 13/03/2026
Online publication date: 16/02/2026
Acceptance date: 05/02/2026
ISSN (electronic): 2380-8195
Publisher: American Chemical Society
URL: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.5c03760
DOI: 10.1021/acsenergylett.5c03760
