The Importance Of Solar Cell Technology

Solar cell technology has seen little innovation since the inceptive crystalline silicon solar cell. While crystalline silicon solar cells offer stable and high efficiencies (~24% out of a theoretical 33.7% maximum1), their manufacturing process is expensive and environmentally detrimental. Over the past decade, photovoltaic and optoelectronic materials based on organic molecules have gained popularity. These cells promise to be low-cost, flexible, environmentally friendly, and functionalizable.2,3 However, due to the increased complexity of the electron-donor systems owed to discrete molecular orbitals, the efficiencies of such cells are generally much lower. The prototypical organic photovoltaic cell has a bulk heterojunction design, sporting an active layer made of a donor-acceptor blend of polymers.4 To ensure effective charge percolation, the structure of n-doped and p-doped molecules must provide continuous pathways while intermingling on a 10 nm scale to allow exciton decoupling. Irregular quasi-crystalline …show more content…
The research group I work with investigates the possibility of pre-organizing donor and acceptor constituents in solution prior to deposition as proposed by K.J. Ihn.6 Poly(3-hexythiophene) (P3HT) has proven to be a premier choice for a n-type polymer in functional optoelectronic materials. Forming quasi-crystalline P3HT precursors in liquid-phase has been shown to further develop into highly crystalline P3HT nanostructures during the drying process7. However, the dominate forces responsible for the structural properties of such assemblies remain only partially scrutinized. Elucidation of significant physicochemical system effects on polymer-polymer and polymer-solvent interactions would provide a basis for the predictive design of polymeric functional materials with targeted