Green flexible organic photovoltaics for energy-autonomous electronics
Lead Research Organisation:
Imperial College London
Department Name: Chemistry
Abstract
The Internet of Things (IoT) revolution and UK's strategy to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050 requires establishing efficient energy scavenging technologies that can be utilised to power small electronic devices for sensing, processing and communicating data. The development of such technologies is essential for supporting modern societal needs in ubiquitous computing and AI. At the same time however, it becomes of vital importance that such technologies are built with environmentally friendly (green) approaches, taking into account the entire life cycle of the product - from raw materials and manufacturing to end-of-life. It is thus important to minimise as much as possible the use of toxic materials and chemicals, as well as develop procedures without the need to utilise equipment that consume huge amounts of energy. A key example is the Si photovoltaics industry that employs toxic chemicals in their production that are not easy to be recycled. It has been estimated that by 2050, over 60 million tons of waste will be generated from silicon solar panels alone.
The aim of this fellowship is to develop novel self-powered electronic technologies, without the need to be operated by batteries; all developed with green materials and low-energy manufacturing techniques. Along these lines, I will use organic semiconductors (OSCs) that allow developing high-performance photovoltaic cells without resourcing to toxic materials. When compared to alternative conventional materials used in PVs my approach will allow for easy processing, low-cost manufacturing and attaining high performance. This will entail appropriate device engineering and material's processing strategies for prototyping high performing OPVs on rigid and flexible substrates. In parallel, I will develop low power consuming electronic components such as, sensors and supercapacitors, from green solvents and materials, in order to couple them with OPVs. Operation of such electronics will be mainly attained via light illumination, for outdoor and indoor conditions that will be exploited in a variety of practical applications. The overarching vision of this fellowship is to establish a new pathway in the IoT industry, enabling the use of such technologies in hard-to-reach areas, wearables and disposable biosensing platforms.
The aim of this fellowship is to develop novel self-powered electronic technologies, without the need to be operated by batteries; all developed with green materials and low-energy manufacturing techniques. Along these lines, I will use organic semiconductors (OSCs) that allow developing high-performance photovoltaic cells without resourcing to toxic materials. When compared to alternative conventional materials used in PVs my approach will allow for easy processing, low-cost manufacturing and attaining high performance. This will entail appropriate device engineering and material's processing strategies for prototyping high performing OPVs on rigid and flexible substrates. In parallel, I will develop low power consuming electronic components such as, sensors and supercapacitors, from green solvents and materials, in order to couple them with OPVs. Operation of such electronics will be mainly attained via light illumination, for outdoor and indoor conditions that will be exploited in a variety of practical applications. The overarching vision of this fellowship is to establish a new pathway in the IoT industry, enabling the use of such technologies in hard-to-reach areas, wearables and disposable biosensing platforms.
Organisations
- Imperial College London (Fellow, Lead Research Organisation, Project Partner)
- QUEEN MARY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON (Collaboration)
- Chinese University of Hong Kong (Collaboration)
- IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON (Collaboration)
- National Technical University of Athens (Project Partner)
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Project Partner)
- KYMIRA Ltd (Project Partner)
- Polysolar (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
Publications
Xu W
(2023)
Impact of Interface Energetic Alignment and Mobile Ions on Charge Carrier Accumulation and Extraction in p-i-n Perovskite Solar Cells
in Advanced Energy Materials
Rotas G
(2022)
Doping-induced decomposition of organic semiconductors: a caveat to the use of Lewis acid p-dopants
in Journal of Materials Chemistry C
Rimmele M
(2023)
A polymer library enables the rapid identification of a highly scalable and efficient donor material for organic solar cells.
in Materials horizons
Panidi J
(2023)
Biorenewable Solvents for High-Performance Organic Solar Cells.
in ACS energy letters
Panidi J
(2022)
Advances in Organic and Perovskite Photovoltaics Enabling a Greener Internet of Things
in Advanced Functional Materials
Panca A
(2023)
Flexible Oxide Thin Film Transistors, Memristors, and Their Integration
in Advanced Functional Materials
Jacoutot P
(2023)
Enhanced sub-1 eV detection in organic photodetectors through tuning polymer energetics and microstructure.
in Science advances
Hong E
(2024)
Strain-Induced a-Phase Stabilization for Low Dark Current FAPI-Based Photodetectors
in Advanced Optical Materials
He Q
(2023)
Ultra-Narrowband Near-Infrared Responsive J-Aggregates of Fused Quinoidal Tetracyanoindacenodithiophene.
in Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.)
Antoniou G
(2022)
Low-power supralinear photocurrent generation via excited state fusion in single-component nanostructured organic photodetectors
in Journal of Materials Chemistry C
Description | Doctor Blade Active Layer |
Organisation | Queen Mary University of London |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | I provided new materials, solvents and methods for high performing solar cells. |
Collaborator Contribution | My collaborators helped me to translate my thin film development methods to techniques that are more suitable for large area thin film development. |
Impact | The outcomes of this collaboration are summarised in my recently submitted works. |
Start Year | 2022 |
Description | Optoelectronic Characterisation of Thin Films |
Organisation | Imperial College London |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Provided thin films developed by biorenewable solvents. |
Collaborator Contribution | My collaborators characterise the optoelectronic properties of the thin films, and helped me to gain better understanding on the organic solar cells that I ve developed. |
Impact | The outcomes of this collaboration are presented in my recently submitted work entitled 'Biorenewable Solvents For High Performing Organic Solar Cells' |
Start Year | 2022 |
Description | Optoelectronic Characterisation of Thin Films |
Organisation | Imperial College London |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Provided thin films developed by biorenewable solvents. |
Collaborator Contribution | My collaborators characterise the optoelectronic properties of the thin films, and helped me to gain better understanding on the organic solar cells that I ve developed. |
Impact | The outcomes of this collaboration are presented in my recently submitted work entitled 'Biorenewable Solvents For High Performing Organic Solar Cells' |
Start Year | 2022 |
Description | Thin film characterisation |
Organisation | Chinese University of Hong Kong |
Country | Hong Kong |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | This collaboration helped me gain information about the morphology of the thin films I ve prepared from renewable solvents for the sustainable development of organic solar cells. This scientific outcomes have been submitted in a high impact factor journal and they are currently under review |
Collaborator Contribution | My collaborator helped understand the crystallinity of the thin films through a combination of morphological characterisation with GIWAXS and GISAXS techniques. |
Impact | The scientific contributions of this collaborations are presented in my recently submitted work entitled 'Biorenewable Solvents For High Performing Organic Solar Cells' |
Start Year | 2022 |
Description | School visit (Marylebone School in London) as part of International Women's Day |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | I was invited to participate in the International Women's Day event that they organised. I gave a short presentation about my career and through a Q&A panel session I promote STEM to young (year 17-18) students. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Volunteer Participation at the Great Exhibition Road Festival 2022 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | I was affiliated with the Centre of Processable Electronics and we participated in this Festival that is organised every year from researchers across Imperial College London, Natural History Museum, Science Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum. We discussed about different types of materials we are using in our research focusing on Energy. As an activity the public was replicating the molecular structure of the materials via origami. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/238233/perovskite-origami-gerf/ |