SOLAR: Programming the Self-Assembly of Matter for Solar Energy Conversion

太阳能：对太阳能转换的物质自组装进行编程

• 批准号: 0935165
• 负责人: Cherie Kagan
• 金额: $ 166.15万
• 依托单位: University of Pennsylvania
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-09-01 至 2013-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0935165&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SOLAR; Programming; Self; Assembly; Matter

The grand challenge in efficiently harvesting and converting solar radiation into electricity lies in engineering materials on multiple length scales with architectures that direct the flow of energy and the transfer and transport of charge, as in naturally occurring light harvesting systems. Organic-inorganic hybrids, prepared from functional, electro-active organic and nanostructured inorganic materials, combine desirable and tunable chemical and physical properties of the constituent organic and inorganic building blocks in a single composite, making them promising systems for solar technologies. Hybrid materials incorporate the low-cost, large-area processing and high absorbance and quantum efficiencies of organic materials with the adjustable optical properties, high carrier conductivities, and good photostability of inorganic nanostructures. Solar photovoltaic and luminescent solar concentrator technologies will be dramatically advanced if the organic and inorganic building blocks of hybrid structures can be positioned and oriented on the nanometer scale to regulate the competitive processes of charge transfer and transport, emission, and energy transfer. Hybrid organic-inorganic materials promise one of the best architectures for ultra-low-cost photovoltaic devices. Currently, the efficiency of hybrid photovoltaic devices is limited by the availability of red-absorbing, high-mobility organic and inorganic components (to match the solar spectrum and efficiently collect charge) and of composites with structures that achieve high surface area junctions, yet form well-connected organic and inorganic pathways. This project aims to produce significantly improved hybrid structures for photovoltaics. Improved hybrid materials may also enable creation of high-efficiency luminescent solar concentrators, which currently are limited in performance by materials challenges; organic and inorganic materials alone have not been found to satisfy the broad-spectrum collection, near-unity photoluminescence efficiency, low re-absorption, and good photostability required. This project brings together advances in chemical synthesis, mathematical modeling, and self-organization to control the position and orientation of organic and inorganic building blocks, exploiting advances at the frontier of chemistry, materials science, and mathematics. We will combine precisely controlled 1) molecular and supramolecular dendrimeric systems tailored to assemble with different structural motifs and 2) nanocrystals of tunable size, shape, and composition that self-assemble into single and multi-component superlattices. Structural, optical, and electrical probes will be combined with mathematical modeling of the effects of interface geometry to optimize charge transfer and transport, emission, and energy transfer. The results will enable engineering of organic-inorganic materials that will be integrated in photovoltaic devices and luminescent solar concentrators.More broadly, the research program will develop new synthetic methods and mathematical formalisms for the self-assembly of hybrid materials with tailored architectures that is important to provide materials with superior structural, electronic, and optical properties. These materials have applications in imaging, therapeutics, and information technology, in addition to energy harvesting. The project's emphasis on mathematical techniques for engineered self-assembling systems offers the potential for impact in robotics and biological systems. The project will also electronically and optically probe and establish mathematical models of the behavior of organic-inorganic heterojunctions key to their application in a range of electronic and optical devices.

有效地收集太阳辐射并将其转换为电能的巨大挑战在于在多个长度尺度上设计材料，其结构可以引导能量的流动以及电荷的转移和传输，就像自然发生的光收集系统一样。有机-无机杂化物由功能性电活性有机材料和纳米结构无机材料制备，联合收割机在单一复合材料中结合了组成有机和无机结构单元的所需和可调的化学和物理性质，使其成为太阳能技术的有前途的系统。杂化材料将有机材料的低成本、大面积加工和高吸收率和量子效率与无机纳米结构的可调光学性质、高载流子电导率和良好的光稳定性结合在一起。如果混合结构的有机和无机构建块能够在纳米尺度上定位和定向，以调节电荷转移和传输、发射和能量转移的竞争过程，那么太阳能光伏和发光太阳能集中器技术将得到极大的进步。有机-无机杂化材料有望成为超低成本光伏器件的最佳架构之一。 目前，混合光伏器件的效率受到红色吸收、高迁移率有机和无机组分（以匹配太阳光谱并有效地收集电荷）以及具有实现高表面积结的结构的复合材料的可用性的限制，但形成良好连接的有机和无机路径。该项目旨在生产用于光化学的显著改进的混合结构。 改进的混合材料还可以使得能够产生高效发光太阳能集中器，其目前在性能上受到材料挑战的限制;尚未发现单独的有机和无机材料满足所需的广谱收集、接近统一的光致发光效率、低再吸收和良好的光稳定性。该项目汇集了化学合成，数学建模和自组织方面的进展，以控制有机和无机构建块的位置和方向，利用化学，材料科学和数学前沿的进展。我们将结合联合收割机精确控制1）分子和超分子树状聚合物系统定制组装与不同的结构基序和2）可调尺寸，形状和组成的纳米晶体，自组装成单组分和多组分超晶格。结构，光学和电学探针将与界面几何形状的影响的数学建模相结合，以优化电荷转移和传输，发射和能量转移。研究结果将使有机-无机材料的工程化成为可能，这些材料将被集成到光伏器件和发光太阳能聚光器中。更广泛地说，该研究计划将开发新的合成方法和数学形式，用于具有定制结构的杂化材料的自组装，这对于提供具有上级结构，电子和光学特性的材料至关重要。除了能量收集之外，这些材料还可用于成像、治疗和信息技术。该项目强调工程自组装系统的数学技术，为机器人和生物系统提供了潜在的影响。该项目还将以电子和光学方式探测并建立有机-无机异质结行为的数学模型，这些异质结是其在一系列电子和光学器件中应用的关键。