Functional donor polymer semiconductors for hybrid solar cells

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Organic photovoltaics (OPVs) or organic solar cells have emerged in recent years as a promising clean technology to convert sunlight into electricity. Polymer-based solar cells are of particular interest due to their excellent solution processability, which potentially enables low cost production of solar cells. They are also lightweight, flexible, and of varied colors, making them suitable for new applications such as portable power and building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV). The power conversion efficiency (PCE), the ability of converting sunlight to electricity, for polymer solar cells has been improved dramatically over the past few years. However the PCE of polymer solar cells is still not comparable to other conventional solar cell technologies such as silicon cells. The most challenging aspect for the polymer solar cell research lies in the development of enabling photoactive materials. In a typical polymer solar cell, the photoactive layer comprising a polymer electron donor and a small molecule electron acceptor is the most essential component for converting photons to electricity. The existing donor and acceptor materials for polymer solar cells have certain limitations in terms of processability, nanostructure control, light harvesting, and charge transport, and are responsible for the poor cell performance. This research program addresses these issues through developing polymer hybrid solar cells that combine the positive characteristics of the polymer materials (excellent processability and mechanical robustness) and the inorganic semiconductor materials (high electrical performance). The research focuses on the design and synthesis of a new class of functional donor polymer semiconductors with excellent processability for high throughput production, desirable optical characteristics for maximum light harvesting, and high electrical performance for charge generation and transport. The properties of this new type of donor polymers are ideal for high efficiency polymer hybrid solar cells.