Molecular Engineering at the Interface of Light and Electrical Charge for Organic Solar Cells.

我们的研究项目集中在用于有机太阳能电池(OSC)的新型有机材料的分子工程。有机太阳能电池(OSC)具有巨大的潜力，可以通过经济高效地将阳光直接转化为电能来释放太阳能。许多司法管辖区的政府不得不提供大量的财政激励措施，以促进硅基太阳能电池的采用，但对于商业OSC来说，这将不是必要的，因为它将是廉价的，因此可以广泛获得。OSCS可以被制造在轻质的柔性塑料上，以生产独立的电池，其可用性将允许无处不在的补充发电。它们还可以集成到笔记本电脑、iPod和iPad等设备的外壳中，以提供主动充电。可用有机材料的局限性阻碍了OSCs的商业引入。在我们的团队中，我们使用晶体工程技术来控制组成OSC的有机材料的固态排列。这种纳米尺度的控制对于OSCs的应用和商业化至关重要，因为只有在这种长度尺度上，我们才能设计和优化电荷传导和功率转换效率的关键参数。我们建议继续关注一类被称为亚硼酞菁(BsubPcs)的材料。BsubPcs具有理想的OSC应用的本征分子性质。剩下的是需要将它们设计成具有高电荷传导性和良好的电力转换效率的形式。为了实现这些目标，该项目的学生需要在化学工程、应用化学、材料科学和工程、有机化学和无机化学、聚合物化学和物理化学等传统学科的交叉点上学习。

Our research program is focused on the molecular engineering of novel organic materials for organic solar cell application (OSC). Organic Solar Cells (OSCs) have immense potential to unlock the power of the sun through the cost-effective direct conversion of sunlight into electricity. Governments in many jurisdictions have had to provide substantial financial incentives to facilitate the adoption of silicon-based solar cells, but this will not be necessary for commercial OSCs, which will be inexpensive and hence broadly accessible. OSCs can be fabricated onto light pieces of flexible plastic to produce a standalone cell, whose availability would allow ubiquitous supplemental power generation. They can also be integrated into the outer casings of devices such as laptop computers, iPods, and iPads to provide active recharging. Limitations in available organic materials are hampering the commercial introduction of OSCs. In our group we use the techniques of crystal engineering to control the solid state arrangement of the organic materials which comprise the OSC. Such control at the nanometer length scale is critical if OSCs are to see application and commercialization as it is only at this length scale that we can engineer and optimize the critical parameters of charge conduction and power conversion efficiency. We propose to continue our focus on a class of materials known as boron subphthalocyanines (BsubPcs). BsubPcs have ideal intrinsic molecular properties for OSC application. What remains is the need to engineer them into forms which have high charge conduction and good power conversion efficiencies. To accomplish these objectives, students within the program are expected to study at the intersection of the traditional disciplines of chemical engineering, applied chemistry, materials science and engineering, organic and inorganic chemistry, polymer chemistry, and physical chemistry.