Conducting Polymer Based Materials for Solar Energy Conversion

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The goal of the proposed research is to find ways to further improve the photoefficiency of organic semiconductors based on polythiophenes and other conjugated polymers, in order to build efficient organic solar cells. The problem of solar energy conversion has become very important over the past few years due to major environmental concerns and high oil prices. The main material utilized in today's solar cells is silicon; however, silicon is expensive in terms of both money and energy required for its production. Organic semiconductors can be easily applied as thin films ("solar paint"); they are potentially inexpensive and feature much higher absorption coefficients in the visible range as compared to inorganic semiconductors. However, the main problem of organic materials is their low efficiency, which is currently maximum 5-6% in some advanced laboratory samples, as compared to 15% and more for commercial silicon cells.