SGER: Improving the efficiency of conjugated polymer-based photovoltaics with ordered nanoscale morphology

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The objective of this research is to explore and gain fundamental understanding of new ways to increase the power conversion efficiency of organic photovoltaic devices. The approach is to improve charge separation and transport in such devices by creating ordered nanoscale interface between an electron donor and acceptor layer in a conjugated polymer based solar cell.Intellectual Merit:Since the discovery organic photovoltaic made with bulk heterojunction polymer blend in 1995 that resulted in the relatively high efficiency, major efforts in the past many years have been developing various annealing methods to modify the heterojunction morphology as a means to improve the efficiency. It becomes evident that these approaches based on the self-organization of blend materials are reaching its limit, and a new methodology is needed to realize the theoretical efficiency for the organic photovoltaic. The most promising one is to "artificially" create the ordered nanoscale interface between the donor and acceptor layers. This program exploits a top-down nanofabrication technology that can not only produce ordered nanoscale morphology with tunable properties, but also scalable to high-throughput roll-to-roll manufacturing in the future. Broader Impacts:Power efficiency is an important factor that determines if the organic photovoltaic technology will become a viable green energy in the future. Therefore the success of this program has transformative impact on the critical fields of renewal energy, sustainable environment and the society. Both graduate and undergraduate students (including minority student) will be involved in the research. The results will be incorporated into courses offered in the EECS and MSE departments