Self-assembled organic photovoltaic materials

可再生能源的发展是一个紧迫的问题，而且规模如此之大，许多技术都将做出贡献。太阳能光伏发电预计将发挥重要作用，因为太阳能丰富，电力作为一种能源很方便，但目前它们只贡献了世界能源供应的一小部分(例如，根据美国能源研究所的数据，美国约为0.1%)。吸收非常有限的主要原因是，目前的太阳能电池比用化石燃料发电要昂贵得多。有机半导体有可能解决这个问题，因为它提供了一条成本低得多的太阳能电池的途径。有机半导体是圆周率共轭的分子和聚合物，可以通过旋涂、卷对卷处理、喷墨和丝网印刷等低成本/大容量沉积技术从溶液中加工。这意味着它们可以用来制造轻便的柔性薄膜设备。我们计划开发新的有机太阳能电池材料，建立在我们从新型十字形分子中获得的有希望的初步结果的基础上。所提出的材料具有明确的结构，可以有效地组装在一起，从而改善了电荷传输。关键的想法是控制这种材料的堆积，这样它们就会“自组装”成高效太阳能电池所需的排列。为了实现这一目标，我们将召集物理学家和化学家团队，并与国家可再生能源实验室和伦敦帝国理工学院的领导小组合作。

The development of renewable energy sources is an urgent problem and so large that many technologies will contribute. Solar photovoltaics can be expected to play a major role because of the abundance of solar energy, and the convenience of electricity as an energy source, but at present they contribute only a tiny fraction of the world's energy supply (e.g. ca. 0.1% in the US, according to the US Institute for Energy Research). The major reason for the very limited uptake is that current solar cells are much more expensive than generating power from fossil fuels. Organic semiconductors have the potential to solve this problem by providing a route to much lower cost solar cells. Organic semiconductors are pi-conjugated molecules and polymers, that can be processed from solution via low cost/high volume deposition techniques such as spin-coating, roll-to-roll processing and ink-jet and screen printing. This means that they can be used to make flexible thin film devices that are lightweight and portable. We propose to develop new organic solar cell materials building on our promising initial results from novel cross-shaped molecules. The proposed materials have well-defined structures that pack together efficiently, giving improved charge transport. The key idea is to control this packing of materials so that they will "self-assemble" into the desired arrangement for efficient solar cells. To achieve this we will bring together teams of physicists and chemists and collaborate with leading groups at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Imperial College London.