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
Urbina A
(2013)
Work function engineering of ZnO electrodes by using p-type and n-type doped carbon nanotubes.
in Nanotechnology
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
Li Z
(2013)
Voltage-dependent photocurrent transients of PTB7:PC70BM solar cells: Experiment and numerical simulation
in Journal of Applied Physics
Hancox I
(2011)
Utilizing n-type vanadium oxide films as hole-extracting layers for small molecule organic photovoltaics
in Applied Physics Letters
Bailey J
(2014)
Understanding the role of ultra-thin polymeric interlayers in improving efficiency of polymer light emitting diodes
in Journal of Applied Physics
Wood S
(2013)
Understanding the relationship between molecular order and charge transport properties in conjugated polymer based organic blend photovoltaic devices.
in The Journal of chemical physics
Risbridger T
(2012)
Two-Dimensional Photocurrent and Transmission Mapping of Aqueous Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells
in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C
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
Dimitrov S
(2014)
Towards optimisation of photocurrent from fullerene excitons in organic solar cells
in Energy & Environmental Science
Guijarro N
(2012)
Toward Antimony Selenide Sensitized Solar Cells: Efficient Charge Photogeneration at spiro-OMeTAD/Sb2Se3/Metal Oxide Heterojunctions.
in The journal of physical chemistry letters