Symmetry-Breaking Charge Separation Materials for Single-junction Organic Photovoltaics

用于单结有机光伏的对称破缺电荷分离材料

• 批准号: EP/Y026659/1
• 负责人: Ebin Sebastian
• 金额: $ 25.55万
• 依托单位: University of Cambridge
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FY026659%2F1
• 关键词: Symmetry; Breaking; Charge; Separation; Materials

Symmetry-breaking charge separation (SB-CS) is one of the key steps in the primary charge separation process of the photosynthesis reaction center, where structural or environmental fluctuations break the excited state symmetry of the chromophoric pair and yield a charge-separated (CS) state. Organic photovoltaics (OPVs) are of growing interest for indoor light harvesting, building, and vehicle-integrated photovoltaics applications. Unlike conventional inorganic photovoltaics, OPV devices conventionally use a combination oforganic donor and acceptor molecules to dissociate excitons and generate photocurrent. There have been rapid advances in the performance of OPVs in the past few years, and single-junction OPVs have achieved a power conversion efficiency above 19%. This process involves intermolecular interactions in the solid state, unlike the SB-CS materials, which involve intramolecular interaction. However, this raises a fascinating question, what if SB-CS materials could be engineered in the solid state to take advantage of both intramolecular and intermolecular effects? Could this allow long-lived charge generation in low-dielectric solid-state environments? This project will venture into this less-explored area of SB-CS material-based single-junction OPVs. SB-CS materials are reported to generate a short-lived CS state via intramolecular interaction. This proposal aims to enhance the CS lifetime of SB-CS material in the solid state by exploiting intermolecular interactions to innovate an efficient charge transfer model. The rigid orthogonal or near-orthogonal arrangement of chromophores is considered an elegant design that renders efficient charge separation. Molecular functionalization and structural and photophysical characterization of materials will be performed to address the scientific challenge. A single-compartment OPV device will be made, and the project's completion will unleash paths for further systematic improvement of single-junction OPVs.

对称性破缺电荷分离（SB-CS）是光合作用反应中心初级电荷分离过程中的关键步骤之一，在此过程中，结构或环境波动破坏了发色团对激发态的对称性，产生电荷分离（CS）态。有机光催化剂（OPV）在室内集光、建筑和车辆集成光催化剂应用中越来越受到关注。与传统的无机光致发光器件不同，OPV器件通常使用有机供体和受体分子的组合来解离激子并产生光电流。在过去的几年中，OPV的性能得到了快速的发展，单结OPV的功率转换效率达到了19%以上。该过程涉及固态中的分子间相互作用，而不像SB-CS材料涉及分子内相互作用。然而，这提出了一个有趣的问题，如果SB-CS材料可以在固态下进行工程设计，以利用分子内和分子间的效应呢？这是否可以在低介电固态环境中产生长寿命的电荷？该项目将冒险进入SB-CS材料为基础的单结OPV这一较少探索的领域。据报道，SB-CS材料通过分子内相互作用产生短寿命的CS态。该提案旨在通过利用分子间相互作用来创新有效的电荷转移模型来提高固态SB-CS材料的CS寿命。发色团的刚性正交或近正交排列被认为是一种优雅的设计，其提供有效的电荷分离。将进行材料的分子功能化以及结构和生物物理表征，以应对科学挑战。将制造单室OPV装置，该项目的完成将为进一步系统改进单结OPV开辟道路。