SOLAR: Novel Nanomaterials and Mathematical Analysis for Ultra-High Efficiency Photovoltaic Systems: A New Paradigm in Solar Cells

技术综述：提高太阳能电池的效率和可负担性是实现能源可持续性的关键目标。半导体纳米材料与有机半导体聚合物的结合使用在这里提供了希望，有可能实现具有成本效益的高性能异质结器件。然而，目前的方法受到激子扩散长度较小和渗透纳米材料聚集体的次优传输特性的限制，这些特性在当今的S最先进的设备中发现。克服这些限制可以导致太阳能电池性能的重大突破。本提案旨在解决上述限制。这项工作是一个为期3年的项目，重点是合成具有长激子寿命的新型纳米材料，如GaN单壁纳米管，并使用定向排列的自组装中间相作为模板来定向组装这些新型纳米材料。在纳米阵列中组装各向异性纳米材料，通过提供高周期的电子-空穴解离表面，提供比激子扩散长度本身更小的长度尺度，从而显著增加光致电荷转移。。在这些排列的表面上的解离为器件的外部电极提供了直接的电子传导路径。这种用于激子解离的高表面积的组织将使用可扩展且不需要高级光刻的方法来完成。谐波分析将被用来显著改进新型纳米材料电光性质的从头计算，以及在将光伏性能与材料组成和器件组装相关联的多参数空间中的实验设计。非技术总结：拟议的工作将为清洁和可持续能源生产提供设计基础。如果成功实施，它将产生新的材料和工艺，从而实现更高的效率和更具成本效益的太阳能电池。该项目具有广泛的技术影响，因为在基础研究过程中开发的材料和方法可以应用于其他领域，如热电能量收集、发光二极管、光电探测器和先进的化学分离。一些教育和外联活动已纳入拟议工作。这些措施包括与三个以本科为重点的机构合作开展的研究研讨会计划，为暑期研究项目招收学生，特别是来自代表性不足的群体的学生，以及为耶鲁大学化学工程本科生入门课程创建一个新的实验设计模块。拟议研究的总体影响是：(1)发展将推动太阳能技术变革性进步的新科学(2)开发除光伏技术以外具有广泛技术相关性的材料和方法(3)对化学、材料科学和数学领域的研究生和研究人员进行高度跨学科的培训(4)本科生参与和指导研究(5)招募未被充分代表的群体进入科学领域。

TECHNICAL SUMMARY:Increasing solar cell efficiency and affordability are critical objectives for achieving energy sustainability. The use of semiconducting nanomaterials paired with organic semiconducting polymers offers promise here, with the possibility to realize cost effective high performance heterojunction devices. Current approaches however are limited by small exciton diffusion lengths and the sub-optimal transport characteristics of the percolated nanomaterial aggregates found in today?s state of the art devices. Overcoming these limitations can lead to significant breakthroughs in solar cell performance. This proposal aims to address the above mentioned limitations. The proposed work is a 3-year project that focuses on the synthesis of novel nanomaterials with long excitonic lifetimes such as GaN single walled nanotubes, and the use of well aligned self-assembled mesophases as templates for the directed assembly of these novel nanomaterials. Assembly of anisotropic nanomaterials in nm-spaced arrays will provide significantly increased photo-induced charge transfer by providing electron-hole dissociation surfaces of high, controllable periodicity, separated by length scales that are smaller than the exciton diffusion length itself. . Dissociation at these aligned surfaces provides direct electron conduction pathways to the external electrodes of the device. The organization of this high surface area for exciton dissociation will be accomplished using methods that are scalable and do not require advanced lithography. Harmonic analysis will be leveraged to considerably enhance both ab initio calculations of the electro-optical properties of novel nanomaterials and design of experiments in the multi-parameter space that correlates photo-voltaic performance with material composition and device assembly.NON TECHNICAL SUMMARY:The proposed work will provide the design basis for clean and sustainable energy generation. Successfully executed, it will result in new materials and processes enabling higher efficiency and more cost-effective solar cells. This project has a broad technical impact as the materials and methods developed during the course of the basic research can be applied in other areas such as thermoelectric energy harvesting, light emitting diodes, photodetectors and advanced chemical separations. A number of educational and outreach activities have been integrated into the proposed work. These include a research seminar program run in partnership with three undergraduate focused institutions, recruitment of students, especially from underrepresented groups, for summer research projects and the creation of a new module on experimental design for the introductory undergraduate Chemical Engineering course at Yale University. The impacts of the proposed research overall are: (1) Development of new science that will drive transformative advances in solar technology (2) Development of materials and methods with a broad range of technological relevance beyond photovoltaics (3) Highly interdisciplinary training of graduate students and researchers cutting across chemistry, materials science and mathematics (4) Involvement and mentoring of undergraduate students in research (5) Recruitment of underrepresented groups to science.