Research Initiation Award: Structure-Property Relationships of Non-Fullerene Acceptors for Photovoltaic Applications

研究启动奖为历史上黑人学院和大学的初级和中级职业教师提供支持，他们正在建立新的研究项目或重新定向和重建现有的研究项目。预计该奖项将有助于进一步提高教师的研究能力和效率，改善家庭机构的研究和教学，并使本科生参与研究经验。授予费耶特维尔州立大学的奖项在许多领域都有潜在的更广泛的影响。该项目的目标是更好地了解有机半导体的热，光学和电子特性。这一认识将为可再生能源行业设计、合成和制造高效聚合物太阳能电池提供指导。本项目的研究目标是：（1）研究太阳能电池最佳覆盖率的条件;（2）研究聚合物构象、受体分子结构和纳米形态对电荷产生的影响;（3）了解与电荷分离动力学有关的界面电子性质;（4）研究太阳能电池最佳覆盖率的条件。以及（4）确定电荷和热传输在非富勒烯聚合物太阳能电池中的重要性。光谱学、电荷传输测量以及形态和结构表征将用于完成该项目。 本研究的结果将为聚合物和非富勒烯受体的合成以及太阳能电池应用的高效有机电子器件的设计提供未来的方向。对这些结构的研究和改进不仅加深了我们对有机半导体中物理过程的理解，而且通过提供廉价、可再生的绿色能源对世界产生了影响。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Research Initiation Awards provide support for junior and mid-career faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities who are building new research programs or redirecting and rebuilding existing research programs. It is expected that the award helps to further the faculty member's research capability and effectiveness, improves research and teaching at the home institution, and involves undergraduate students in research experiences. The award to Fayetteville State University has potential broader impacts in a number of areas. The goal of the project is to obtain a better understanding of the thermal, optical, and electronic properties of organic semiconductors. Such understanding will provide guidelines for the design, synthesis and fabrication of highly efficient polymer solar cells to the renewable energy industry. Undergraduate students will gain research experiences and the research will be integrated in an undergraduate course.The research goals of the project are to (1) investigate the conditions for optimum solar cell coverage, (2) examine the impact of polymer conformation, molecular architecture of acceptors, and nano-morphology on charge generation, (3) understand the interface electronic properties in connection with charge separation dynamics, and (4) determine the importance of charge and thermal transport in non-fullerene polymer solar cells. Optical spectroscopy, charge transport measurements and morphological and structural characterizations will be used for completion of the project. The findings from this research will provide future directions for polymer and non-fullerene acceptor synthesis and the design of high efficiency organic electronic devices for solar cell applications. Investigation and improvement of these structures not only furthers our understanding of photophysical processes in organic semiconductors, but also impacts the world by providing inexpensive, renewable, green energy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.