Final Scientific/Technical Report -- Single-Junction Organic Solar Cells with >15% Efficiency
- Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
- Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL (United States). Dept. of Chemistry
Organic solar cells have the potential to offer low-cost solar energy conversion due to low material costs and compatibility with low-temperature and high throughput manufacturing processes. This project aims to further improve the efficiency of organic solar cells by applying a previously demonstrated molecular self-assembly approach to longer-wavelength light-absorbing organic materials. The team at the University of Florida designed and synthesized a series of low-bandgap organic semiconductors with functional hydrogen-bonding groups, studied their assembly characteristics and optoelectronic properties in solid-state thin film, and fabricated organic solar cells using solution processing. These new organic materials absorb light up 800 nm wavelength, and provide a maximum open-circuit voltage of 1.05 V in the resulted solar cells. The results further confirmed the effectiveness in this approach to guide the assembly of organic semiconductors in thin films to yield higher photovoltaic performance for solar energy conversion. Through this project, we have gained important understanding on designing, synthesizing, and processing organic semiconductors that contain appropriately functionalized groups to control the morphology of the organic photoactive layer in solar cells. Such fundamental knowledge could be used to further develop new functional organic materials to achieve higher photovoltaic performance, and contribute to the eventual commercialization of the organic solar cell technology.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
- DOE Contract Number:
- EE0007362
- OSTI ID:
- 1435607
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-UF-7362
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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