SUPERGEN Excitonic Solar Cell Consortium - MAIN CORE
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Warwick
Department Name: Chemistry
Abstract
Excitonic Solar Cells (ESCs) are a class of non-conventional solar cells, based on organic and nanostructured materials, in which the charge carriers are generated and simultaneously separated across a heterointerface. They include dye-sensitized nanocrystalline cells, organic cells and hybrid organic-inorganic cells, and in all cases cell fabrication can be achieved using low cost, large area deposition methods on both rigid and flexible substrates. Consequently, ESCs offer genuine medium to long term prospects for reducing the cost of PV below the commercially important threshold of $1 per watt peak. To date work on all types of ESC has been largely restricted to basic studies in academic and national research laboratories, with particular emphasis on improving device understanding and cell efficiency, which are 11% for state of the art dye cells, and much lower for the less well developed organic (4-5%) and hybrid cells (2-3%). However, progress in all types of ESC has undoubtedly been impressive in recent years, with research activity growing rapidly throughout the world. Major improvements in performance have been demonstrated in all cell types with the SUPERGEN Consortium at the forefront of much of this progress. There have also been initial steps to commercialise some ESCs, with the first manufacturing plant to produce dye sensitised cells opening in the UK in 2007. However, much fundamental research still needs to be carried out, in particular on the less well developed organic and hybrid cells, but also on the more mature dye cells where many important challenges must be addressed to enable future successful commercialisation. The UK is in an excellent position to lead this activity in an emerging area of PV technology and renewed SUPERGEN funding will enable the Consortium to remain at the forefront of innovative research, while exploiting its strong connections to a number of relevant commercial organisations.Our proposed Main Core programme builds on the successes of our first SUPERGEN project which benefited strongly from the integration of expertise and knowledge in the two main areas of excitonic solar cells, namely dye sensitised cells and organic cells. We will continue to promote cross-fertilisation of ideas for optimising existing cell types and for innovating new types of cells, with the overall aim of improving the performance of different types of ESC. Training will remain a key priority for the Consortium and the exchange of PDRAs and PhD students between the partner universities will ensure the highest quality multi-disciplinary research environment. The UK has a very strong international position in research into ESCs and the renewal of the SUPERGEN programme will help ensure it remains both competitive and innovative in future years.
Organisations
Publications
Gao F
(2012)
Quantifying Loss Mechanisms in Polymer:Fullerene Photovoltaic Devices
in Advanced Energy Materials
Bansal N
(2013)
Solution Processed Polymer-Inorganic Semiconductor Solar Cells Employing Sb 2 S 3 as a Light Harvesting and Electron Transporting Material
in Advanced Energy Materials
Collins B
(2012)
Absolute Measurement of Domain Composition and Nanoscale Size Distribution Explains Performance in PTB7:PC 71 BM Solar Cells
in Advanced Energy Materials
Kim J
(2014)
Germanium- and Silicon-Substituted Donor-Acceptor Type Copolymers: Effect of the Bridging Heteroatom on Molecular Packing and Photovoltaic Device Performance
in Advanced Energy Materials
Sullivan P
(2011)
Halogenated Boron Subphthalocyanines as Light Harvesting Electron Acceptors in Organic Photovoltaics
in Advanced Energy Materials
Shoaee S
(2013)
Charge Photogeneration for a Series of Thiazolo-Thiazole Donor Polymers Blended with the Fullerene Electron Acceptors PCBM and ICBA
in Advanced Functional Materials
Bannock J
(2012)
Continuous Synthesis of Device-Grade Semiconducting Polymers in Droplet-Based Microreactors
in Advanced Functional Materials
Beaumont N
(2011)
Boron Subphthalocyanine Chloride as an Electron Acceptor for High-Voltage Fullerene-Free Organic Photovoltaics
in Advanced Functional Materials
Li Z
(2011)
Comparison of the Operation of Polymer/Fullerene, Polymer/Polymer, and Polymer/Nanocrystal Solar Cells: A Transient Photocurrent and Photovoltage Study
in Advanced Functional Materials
Hellmann C
(2013)
Controlling the Interaction of Light with Polymer Semiconductors
in Advanced Materials
Janssen RA
(2013)
Factors limiting device efficiency in organic photovoltaics.
in Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.)
Cho S
(2012)
Probing the effect of relative molecular orientation on the photovoltaic device performance of an organic bilayer heterojunction using soft x-ray spectroscopies
in Applied Physics Letters
Ehrler B
(2012)
Hybrid pentacene/a-silicon solar cells utilizing multiple carrier generation via singlet exciton fission
in Applied Physics Letters
Etherington M
(2014)
Recombination pathways in polymer:fullerene photovoltaics observed through spin polarization measurements
in Applied Physics Letters
Hancox I
(2011)
Utilizing n-type vanadium oxide films as hole-extracting layers for small molecule organic photovoltaics
in Applied Physics Letters
Hou B
(2021)
Synthetic Mechanism Studies of Iron Selenides: An Emerging Class of Materials for Electrocatalysis
in Catalysts
Beatrup D
(2014)
Polaron stability in semiconducting polymer neat films.
in Chemical communications (Cambridge, England)
Hou B
(2013)
Initial stages in the formation of Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 nanoparticles.
in Chemistry (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany)
Vaissier V
(2014)
Effect of Molecular Fluctuations on Hole Diffusion within Dye Monolayers
in Chemistry of Materials
Hewat TE
(2014)
Neutral copper(I) dipyrrin complexes and their use as sensitizers in dye-sensitized solar cells.
in Dalton transactions (Cambridge, England : 2003)
Beaumont N
(2011)
Increased efficiency in small molecule organic photovoltaic cells through electrode modification with self-assembled monolayers
in Energy & Environmental Science
Dimitrov S
(2014)
Towards optimisation of photocurrent from fullerene excitons in organic solar cells
in Energy & Environmental Science
Tsoi W
(2011)
Surface and subsurface morphology of operating nanowire:fullerene solar cells revealed by photoconductive-AFM
in Energy & Environmental Science
O'Mahony F
(2012)
Electron and hole transfer at metal oxide/Sb2S3/spiro-OMeTAD heterojunctions
in Energy & Environmental Science
Hancox I
(2010)
Increased efficiency of small molecule photovoltaic cells by insertion of a MoO 3 hole-extracting layer
in Energy Environ. Sci.
Grew B
(2014)
High Mobility Titanium-doped Indium Oxide for Use in Tandem Solar Cells Deposited via Pulsed DC Magnetron Sputtering
in Energy Procedia
Wood S
(2014)
In situ formation of organic-inorganic hybrid nanostructures for photovoltaic applications
in Faraday Discuss.
Chauhan V
(2010)
Elucidating the factors that determine the open circuit voltage in discrete heterojunction organic photovoltaic cells
in J. Mater. Chem.
Dattani R
(2014)
A general mechanism for controlling thin film structures in all-conjugated block copolymer:fullerene blends
in J. Mater. Chem. A
Hou B
(2014)
Rapid phosphine-free synthesis of CdSe quantum dots: promoting the generation of Se precursors using a radical initiator
in J. Mater. Chem. A
Li Z
(2013)
Voltage-dependent photocurrent transients of PTB7:PC70BM solar cells: Experiment and numerical simulation
in Journal of Applied Physics
Bailey J
(2014)
Understanding the role of ultra-thin polymeric interlayers in improving efficiency of polymer light emitting diodes
in Journal of Applied Physics
Li Z
(2011)
Transient photocurrent measurements of PCDTBT:PC70BM and PCPDTBT:PC70BM Solar Cells: Evidence for charge trapping in efficient polymer/fullerene blends
in Journal of Applied Physics
Kim J
(2012)
A comparison between dithienosilole and dithienogermole donor-acceptor type co-polymers for organic bulk heterojunction photovoltaic devices
in Journal of Materials Chemistry
Fei Z
(2011)
A low band gap co-polymer of dithienogermole and 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole by Suzuki polycondensation and its application in transistor and photovoltaic cells
in Journal of Materials Chemistry
Dalgleish S
(2011)
Indole-substituted nickel dithiolene complexes in electronic and optoelectronic devices
in Journal of Materials Chemistry
Nightingale A
(2013)
Large-scale synthesis of nanocrystals in a multichannel droplet reactor
in Journal of Materials Chemistry A
Kim J
(2015)
Morphology-performance relationships in polymer/fullerene blends probed by complementary characterisation techniques - effects of nanowire formation and subsequent thermal annealing
in Journal of Materials Chemistry C
Ravirajan P
(2012)
Post-Processing Treatments in Hybrid Polymer/Titanium Dioxide Multilayer Solar Cells
in Journal of Nanoelectronics and Optoelectronics
Brenner T
(2012)
White-light bias external quantum efficiency measurements of standard and inverted P3HT : PCBM photovoltaic cells
in Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics
Agostinelli T
(2011)
The role of alkane dithiols in controlling polymer crystallization in small band gap polymer:Fullerene solar cells
in Journal of Polymer Science Part B: Polymer Physics
Zhang W
(2009)
Systematic improvement in charge carrier mobility of air stable triarylamine copolymers.
in Journal of the American Chemical Society
Tsoi W
(2011)
The Nature of In-Plane Skeleton Raman Modes of P3HT and Their Correlation to the Degree of Molecular Order in P3HT:PCBM Blend Thin Films
in Journal of the American Chemical Society
Lilliu S
(2011)
Effects of thermal annealing upon the nanomorphology of poly(3-hexylselenophene)-PCBM blends.
in Macromolecular rapid communications
Lilliu S
(2011)
Dynamics of Crystallization and Disorder during Annealing of P3HT/PCBM Bulk Heterojunctions
in Macromolecules
Collins B
(2011)
Fullerene-Dependent Miscibility in the Silole-Containing Copolymer PSBTBT-08
in Macromolecules
Bannock J
(2014)
Controlled synthesis of conjugated random copolymers in a droplet-based microreactor
in Mater. Horiz.
Ehrler B
(2012)
Singlet exciton fission-sensitized infrared quantum dot solar cells.
in Nano letters