Project 4.1 Organic Solar Cells and Integrated Modules
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The goal of our research on organic solar cells within CMDITR is to advance the understanding of the physics that governs their operation and to develop models that can be used to guide the optimization of their performance. These models also guide the synthesis of new materials for photovoltaic devices with optimized electrical and optical properties. Our objective will be to increase the efficiency of devices based on bulk heterojunctions and multilayer geometries (> 10% on glass substrates and > 7% on light-weight flexible substrates) by the synthesis of new molecules and polymers with optimized properties. Other important aspects of our activities include the study of the reliability of these devices and the development of new transparent conducting layers intended as replacements for ITO, which is expensive and has limited mechanical properties when deposited on flexible organic substrates. Another aspect of our research will be to understand the limiting factors when the area of the cells is increased and to develop means the materials and processes require to create high efficiency large-area cells and modules. One approach will also focus on building tandem cells, in which several cells based on organic films are stacked in the vertical direction. CMDITR’s long-term goal is to integrate a solar module with a rechargeable battery on a conformable substrate and to demonstrate portable sensor nodes (e.g. RFID tags) with increased functionality enabled by harvesting of ambient light.