SusChEM: Materials and Architectures for High Efficiency Organic Photovoltaics

SusChEM：高效有机光伏材料和架构

• 批准号: 1511757
• 负责人: Mark Thompson
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: University of Southern California
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-09-15 至 2018-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1511757&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SusChEM; Materials; Architectures; Efficiency; Organic

PI: Mark E ThompsonProposal Number: 1511757The sun represents the most abundant potential source of sustainable energy on earth. Solar cells that use light-absorbing organic polymers to convert light to electricity ? organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices - offer a potentially low-cost route for renewable electricity production. However, in order to achieve parity with other solar photovoltaic technologies, organic solar cells must increase their power conversion efficiency past the current 10.5% world record. One reason for this low efficiency is that OPV devices do not harness the light energy in the infra-red range of the solar spectrum, which is beyond the visible range of light. The overall goal of this project is to design new light absorption materials for OPV that simultaneously increase infra-red light absorption and improve the voltage output, leading to a potentially significant incremental increase in solar energy conversion efficiency. Through this research, fundamental scientific understanding on how to more rationally align the energy conversion processes within OPV devices will be also gained. As part of the educational activities associated with this project, students from a community college in Los Angeles will participate in summer research on solar energy, hosted through the laboratory of the principal investigator.The overall goal of the proposed research is to enhance the performance of organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices through the development of new materials and device architectures that extend light absorption and conversion into the near infra-red (near-IR) portion of the solar spectrum, and concurrently increase the open circuit voltage towards its theoretical limit. Towards this end, small molecules that absorb strongly into the 950-1000 nm range will be used as part of single and multiple sensitization strategies to achieve broadband absorption in the visible to near-IR spectral range. Furthermore, intramolecular symmetry breaking charge transfer materials, which contain both electron donors and acceptors, will be designed to narrow the offset between the energies of the charge transfer state, exciton, and the open-circuit voltage. In this context, the research plan has two primary objectives that will be carried out interactively. The first objective is to prepare and characterize the photophysical properties of new materials, and then second objective to develop novel structures that utilize these new materials in OPV devices. Theoretical models will be used to predict absorption energies for a wide range of cyanine-like dyes for near-IR, and from these studies, the most promising small molecule materials will be synthesized, characterized by photophysical methods, and then tested in OPV devices. Synthetic and photophysical characterization studies will also be carried out to determine the parameters that control symmetry breaking charge transfer (SBCT) in strongly absorbing materials. This fundamental understanding will be used to design OPV device architectures to accommodate these SCBT materials. The device physics of OPV devices containing SCBT materials will be then characterized to understand the phenomena that could lead to increased open circuit voltage. Finally, all dye targets will be designed to serve as suitable ligands for preparation of zinc-dye complexes. These new zinc complexes are expected to promote symmetry breaking charge transfer, making it possible to simultaneously increase near-IR spectral response and increase open circuit voltage. If successful, these new OPV materials will improve solar energy conversion efficiency through synergistic design of light absorption and charge transfer processes.

PI：Mark E Thompson 提案编号：1511757 太阳是地球上最丰富的潜在可持续能源。 使用吸光有机聚合物将光转化为电能的太阳能电池？有机光伏（OPV）设备——为可再生电力生产提供潜在的低成本途径。 然而，为了实现与其他太阳能光伏技术的平价，有机太阳能电池必须将其电力转换效率提高到超过目前10.5%的世界纪录。 效率低的原因之一是 OPV 设备无法利用太阳光谱红外范围内的光能，该范围超出了可见光范围。 该项目的总体目标是为 OPV 设计新型光吸收材料，同时增加红外光吸收并提高电压输出，从而可能显着提高太阳能转换效率。 通过这项研究，还将获得关于如何更合理地调整 OPV 设备内的能量转换过程的基本科学理解。 作为与该项目相关的教育活动的一部分，洛杉矶一所社区大学的学生将参加由首席研究员实验室主办的夏季太阳能研究。拟议研究的总体目标是提高太阳能的表现通过开发新材料和器件架构，将光吸收和转换扩展到太阳光谱的近红外（near-IR）部分，同时将开路电压提高到理论极限，从而开发出有机光伏（OPV）器件。为此，在 950-1000 nm 范围内强烈吸收的小分子将被用作单一和多重敏化策略的一部分，以实现可见光到近红外光谱范围内的宽带吸收。 此外，包含电子供体和受体的分子内对称性破坏电荷转移材料将被设计成缩小电荷转移态、激子和开路电压的能量之间的偏移。在这种背景下，该研究计划有两个主要目标，这两个目标将互动进行。 第一个目标是制备新材料并表征其光物理性质，第二个目标是开发在 OPV 器件中利用这些新材料的新颖结构。 理论模型将用于预测各种花青类染料的近红外吸收能，并且从这些研究中，将合成最有前途的小分子材料，通过光物理方法表征，然后在 OPV 器件中进行测试。 还将进行合成和光物理表征研究，以确定控制强吸收材料中对称破缺电荷转移（SBCT）的参数。 这一基本认识将用于设计 OPV 器件架构以适应这些 SCBT 材料。然后将对含有 SCBT 材料的 OPV 器件的器件物理特性进行表征，以了解可能导致开路电压增加的现象。 最后，所有染料靶标将被设计​​作为制备锌染料复合物的合适配体。这些新的锌配合物有望促进对称性破坏的电荷转移，从而可以同时增加近红外光谱响应和增加开路电压。 如果成功，这些新型 OPV 材料将通过光吸收和电荷转移过程的协同设计来提高太阳能转换效率。