SusChEM: Materials and Architectures for High Efficiency Organic Photovoltaics

Pi：Mark E Thompson提议编号：1511757太阳代表着地球上最丰富的潜在可持续能源。使用吸光有机聚合物将光转化为电能的太阳能电池？有机光伏(OPV)设备--为可再生电力生产提供了一条潜在的低成本途径。然而，为了实现与其他太阳能光伏技术的平起平坐，有机太阳能电池必须将其电力转换效率提高到超过目前10.5%的世界纪录。这种低效率的原因之一是，OPV设备没有利用太阳光谱红外范围内的光能，而这超出了可见光的范围。该项目的总体目标是为OPV设计新的光吸收材料，同时增加红外光的吸收并改善电压输出，从而潜在地显著提高太阳能转换效率。通过这项研究，还将对如何更合理地调整OPV设备内的能量转换过程获得基础性的科学理解。作为与该项目相关的教育活动的一部分，洛杉矶一所社区大学的学生将参加由首席研究员的实验室主办的关于太阳能的夏季研究。拟议研究的总体目标是通过开发新材料和设备架构来提高有机光伏(OPV)设备的性能，将光吸收和转换扩展到太阳光谱的近红外(近红外)部分，同时将开路电压提高到接近其理论极限。为此，在950-1000 nm范围内强吸收的小分子将被用作单一和多重增感策略的一部分，以在可见光到近红外光谱范围内实现宽带吸收。此外，分子内对称性破坏电荷转移材料，包括电子给体和受体，将被设计来缩小电荷转移态、激子和开路电压之间的能量偏移。在这方面，研究计划有两个主要目标，将以互动方式进行。第一个目标是制备和表征新材料的光物理性质，第二个目标是开发将这些新材料应用于OPV器件的新结构。理论模型将被用来预测大范围的花菁类染料的近红外吸收能，并将从这些研究中合成最有前途的小分子材料，用光物理方法进行表征，然后在OPV器件中进行测试。还将进行合成和光物理表征研究，以确定控制强吸收材料中对称破坏电荷转移(SBCT)的参数。这一基本理解将被用于设计OPV设备架构，以适应这些SCBT材料。然后，将对包含SCBT材料的OPV器件的器件物理进行表征，以了解可能导致开路电压增加的现象。最后，所有的染料靶都将被设计成合适的配体来制备锌染料络合物。这些新的锌配合物有望促进对称性破缺电荷转移，从而有可能同时增加近红外光谱响应和增加开路电压。如果成功，这些新的OPV材料将通过光吸收和电荷转移过程的协同设计来提高太阳能转换效率。

PI: Mark E ThompsonProposal Number: 1511757The sun represents the most abundant potential source of sustainable energy on earth. Solar cells that use light-absorbing organic polymers to convert light to electricity ? organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices - offer a potentially low-cost route for renewable electricity production. However, in order to achieve parity with other solar photovoltaic technologies, organic solar cells must increase their power conversion efficiency past the current 10.5% world record. One reason for this low efficiency is that OPV devices do not harness the light energy in the infra-red range of the solar spectrum, which is beyond the visible range of light. The overall goal of this project is to design new light absorption materials for OPV that simultaneously increase infra-red light absorption and improve the voltage output, leading to a potentially significant incremental increase in solar energy conversion efficiency. Through this research, fundamental scientific understanding on how to more rationally align the energy conversion processes within OPV devices will be also gained. As part of the educational activities associated with this project, students from a community college in Los Angeles will participate in summer research on solar energy, hosted through the laboratory of the principal investigator.The overall goal of the proposed research is to enhance the performance of organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices through the development of new materials and device architectures that extend light absorption and conversion into the near infra-red (near-IR) portion of the solar spectrum, and concurrently increase the open circuit voltage towards its theoretical limit. Towards this end, small molecules that absorb strongly into the 950-1000 nm range will be used as part of single and multiple sensitization strategies to achieve broadband absorption in the visible to near-IR spectral range. Furthermore, intramolecular symmetry breaking charge transfer materials, which contain both electron donors and acceptors, will be designed to narrow the offset between the energies of the charge transfer state, exciton, and the open-circuit voltage. In this context, the research plan has two primary objectives that will be carried out interactively. The first objective is to prepare and characterize the photophysical properties of new materials, and then second objective to develop novel structures that utilize these new materials in OPV devices. Theoretical models will be used to predict absorption energies for a wide range of cyanine-like dyes for near-IR, and from these studies, the most promising small molecule materials will be synthesized, characterized by photophysical methods, and then tested in OPV devices. Synthetic and photophysical characterization studies will also be carried out to determine the parameters that control symmetry breaking charge transfer (SBCT) in strongly absorbing materials. This fundamental understanding will be used to design OPV device architectures to accommodate these SCBT materials. The device physics of OPV devices containing SCBT materials will be then characterized to understand the phenomena that could lead to increased open circuit voltage. Finally, all dye targets will be designed to serve as suitable ligands for preparation of zinc-dye complexes. These new zinc complexes are expected to promote symmetry breaking charge transfer, making it possible to simultaneously increase near-IR spectral response and increase open circuit voltage. If successful, these new OPV materials will improve solar energy conversion efficiency through synergistic design of light absorption and charge transfer processes.