US-India workshop on organic photovoltaic materials and devices

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PI: Dalal, Vikram L.Proposal Number: 1332934Institution: Iowa State UniversityTitle: US-India workshop on organic photovoltaic materials and devicesThis award is being co-funded by the Office of International and Integrated Activities. The primary objective of this proposal is to improve the science and technology of organic photovoltaic materials and devices through active collaboration between scientists in the U.S. and in India. A further objective is to further the education of U.S. graduate students in this field by providing opportunities for them to work collaboratively with their peers at Universities and research laboratories in India. This proposal is focused on starting such collaboration by holding two workshops in this field, one in the U.S., and one in India. The effort is to be jointly supported by U.S. NSF for U.S. scientists and by India's Indo-US Science and Technology Forum for the Indian scientists. This workshop will focus on the organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices that are an up and coming technology of significant interest for delivering low cost, distributed electric power for rural populations. In principle, OPV devices offer a very low cost pathway for generating electricity using energy from the sun. However, for economical generation of energy, both the conversion efficiency, and the stability of organic solar cells has to improve significantly. The current generation of OPV devices has reached energy efficiencies but degrade in a very short time. These are significant problems that need to be overcome to make the technology economically feasible, and this workshop will bring together some of the best people working in this field from both the U.S. and India to address the critical issues in this technology. It is expected that the workshops will lead to complementary and synergistic research projects in this field in both countries, thereby accelerating the development of the science and technology of OPV materials and devices. OPV technology offers a potential low-cost pathway for meeting some of the energy needs. Both India and the U.S. have a significant industrial base in the area of photovoltaic technology, and this joint effort will benefit industries in both countries. The impact on education of U.S. graduate students is likely to be significant. It is important that U.S. students in Engineering and Sciences experience the research and economic infrastructure in developing countries such as India, so that they can design the devices appropriate to India which is a vast potential market for U.S. companies.