STTR Phase I: Control of the Nanostructure of Organic Photovoltaic Films by Interdiffusion

这个小型企业技术转移(STTR)第一阶段项目将展示一种优化薄膜光伏器件制造的新方法。高效地将太阳辐射转换为光的要求是现代固体物理学和工程学的一个挑战。其任务是提供高效、廉价、寿命长的转换元件，以便与利用地球上不可再生资源的电能来源竞争。有机固态器件具有几个优点，使它们在这一科学研究和商业开发领域非常有趣：(1)吸收特性的可调性，(2)由于制造容易和原材料成本低而降低生产成本，(3)机械灵活性。只需使用1公斤有机材料，就可以生产10,000平方米的有源太阳能电池板，有机活性层的薄膜厚度为100纳米。露娜建议使用互扩散工艺来制造薄膜有机光伏器件，并在制造过程中对其进行电学和光学表征。这种史无前例的新方法使人们能够在制造过程中优化器件性能，并解决两种有机分子相互扩散过程中发生的化学和物理过程的动力学问题。薄膜光电二极管和太阳能电池立即在各种商业领域得到应用，成为光通信、家用电器和商业电子中廉价、大面积、灵活的光学检测和能量转换设备。

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project will demonstrate a new approach to optimize thin film photovoltaic device fabrication. The requirements for the efficient conversion of solar radiation to light are a challenge to modern solid state physics and engineering. The task is to provide conversion elements, which are efficient, cheap, and long-lived in order to compete with sources of electric energy which exploit non-regenerative resources of our planet. Organic solid state devices offer severaladvantages which make them highly interesting for this area of scientific research and commercial development: (1) tunability of the absorption properties, (2) low cost of production due to the ease of fabrication and low costs for the raw materials, (3) mechanical flexibility. One could produce 10,000 m2 of active solar panels with a film thickness of the organic active layer of 100 nm using only 1 kg of organic material. Luna proposes to use an interdiffusion process to fabricate thin film, organic photovoltaicdevices that are characterized electrically and optically during the fabrication step. This unprecedented, new approach allows one to optimize device performance during fabrication and to resolve the kinetics of the chemical and physical processes which take place during the interdiffusion of two species of organic molecules.Thin film photodiodes and solar cells have immediate application in various commercial areas for inexpensive, large area, flexible optical detection and energy conversion devices in optical communications, household appliances, and commercial electronics.