Perovskite materials hold great potential as photovoltaic power sources for portable devices owing to their mechanical flexibility and high performance; however, the flexibility and efficiency require further improvement to attain practical viability. We investigated the mechanical fracture behavior of polycrystalline perovskite films by varying the substrate thickness and applying the neutral plane concept. This enabled us to fabricate a crack-free perovskite film on an ultra-thin substrate (∼2.5 μm) and to demonstrate ultra-flexible solar cells with high efficiency (17.03%) with unprecedented flexibility sustained after 10 000 cycles of bending at a 0.5 mm radius. This represents a high efficiency of 13.6% for large-area flexible perovskite solar cells (1.2 cm²), fabricated by using a hybrid transparent electrode composed of a metal mesh grid and conducting polymer. Using a protective layer to achieve the neutral plane concept, our ultra-flexible perovskite solar cells are demonstrated to be durable even after 100 crumpling cycles. Our approach paves the way to fabricate flexible perovskite solar cells for portable power sources.

Low-temperature solid oxide fuel cells (LT-SOFC) operating below 650 °C have attracted attention as a next-generation fuel cell. Although much effort has been paid to develop such fuel cells, it still remains challenging to satisfy all the requirements ensuring practical operation, such as power output and durability. Here we demonstrate 4 cm × 4 cm multiscale structured LT-SOFCs having a record high power output of 13 W per single cell at 500 °C via a large-area ceramic micropatterning and thin-film depositions. Our cell exhibits excellent long-term stability with performance degradation of less than 0.05% per 500 h. Quantitative microstructure and electrochemical analyses reveal that the proposed cell significantly lowered both ohmic and polarization losses than the reference planar cells. This work features a facile and powerful tool to implement robust and large-area 3D architectures in LT-SOFCs, which opens up opportunities to produce practical LT-SOFC systems satisfying both power and durability.

Guided cracks were successfully generated in an electrode using the concentrated surface stress of a prism-patterned Nafion membrane. An electrode with guided cracks was formed by stretching the catalyst-coated Nafion membrane. The morphological features of the stretched membrane electrode assembly (MEA) were investigated with respect to variation in the prism pattern dimension (prism pitches of 20 μm and 50 μm) and applied strain (S ≈ 0.5 and 1.0). The behaviour of water on the surface of the cracked electrode was examined using environmental scanning electron microscopy. Guided cracks in the electrode layer were shown to be efficient water reservoirs and liquid water passages. The MEAs with and without guided cracks were incorporated into fuel cells, and electrochemical measurements were conducted. As expected, all MEAs with guided cracks exhibited better performance than conventional MEAs, mainly because of the improved water transport.

In mechanical sensory systems, encapsulation is one of the crucial issues to take care of when it comes to protection of the systems from external damage. Recently, a new type of a mechanical strain sensor inspired by spider’s slit organ has been reported, which has incredibly high sensitivity, flexibility, wearability, and multifunctional sensing abilities. In spite of many of these advantages, the sensor is still vulnerable in harsh environments of liquids and/or high temperature, because it has heat-vulnerable polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate without any encapsulation layer. Here, we present a mechanical crack-based strain sensor with heat, water and saline solution resistance by alternating the substrate from polyester film to polyimide film and encapsulating the sensor with polyimide. We have demonstrated the ability of the encapsulated crack-based sensor against heat, water, saline solution damage through experiments. Our sensor exhibited reproducibility and durability with high sensitivity to strain (gauge factor above 10,000 at strain of two percent). These results show a new potential of the crack-based sensory system to be used as a wearable voice/motion/pulse sensing device and a high-temperature strain sensor.

Over the past few decades, considerable advances have been achieved in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) based on the development of material technology. Recently, an emerging multiscale architecturing technology covering nanometer, micrometer, and millimeter scales has been regarded as an alternative strategy to overcome the hindrance to achieving high‐performance and reliable PEMFCs. This review summarizes the recent progress in the key components of PEMFCs based on a novel architecture strategy. In the first section, diverse architectural methods for patterning the membrane surface with random, single‐scale, and multiscale structures as well as their efficacy for improving catalyst utilization, charge transport, and water management are discussed. In the subsequent section, the electrode structures designed with 1D and 3D multiscale structures to enable low Pt usage, improve oxygen transport, and achieve high electrode durability are elucidated. Finally, recent advances in the architectured transport layer for improving mass transportation including pore gradient, perforation, and patterned wettability for gas diffusion layer and 3D structured/engineered flow fields are described.