Integrated Photo‐Responsive Batteries for Solar Energy Harnessing: Recent Advances, Challenges, and Opportunities

Abstract Photo‐responsive batteries that enable the effective combination of solar harvesting and energy conversion/storage functionalities render a potential solution to achieve the large‐scale utilization of unlimited and cost‐effective solar energy and alleviate the limits of conventional energy storage devices. The internal integration of photo‐responsive electrodes into rechargeable batteries with the simplest two‐electrode configuration is regarded as a reliable and appealing strategy for highly‐efficient and low‐cost utilization of solar energy by simplifying the device architecture and improving the energy efficiency. This progress report provides a brief review on photo‐responsive batteries with integrated two‐electrode configuration that can achieve solar energy conversion/storage in one single device. The basic device architecture, operating principles and practical performance of various photo‐responsive systems based on solar energy harvesting in various batteries including Li ion batteries, Li−S batteries, Li−I batteries, dual‐liquid redox batteries, Li−O2 batteries, non‐Li anode‐O2/air batteries are summarized and discussed. Finally, the future opportunities and challenges regarding the two‐electrode photo‐responsive batteries are proposed.