Can you get more with less? Organic Photovoltaics for longer lifetime and lower cost via blending with commodity polymers

This research will focus on decreasing the cost of production and enhancing the lifetime of Organic Solar Cells (OSCs) by blending the active layer components with commodity polymers.

OSCs have, in recent years, been given a lot of attention due to their rapidly increasing power conversion efficiencies of up to 17%. However, little attention has been paid to their lifetime and cost of production. In order to meet increasing global energy demand in a sustainable manner the renewable technologies employed must have reasonably long lifetimes and low cost of production so they can compete with fossil fuels.

OSCs tend to have a lifetime in the order of days to months in ambient conditions; this is due to degradation by photooxidation in the presence of water and oxygen. This degradation is therefore a roadblock to their uptake. Self-encapsulation by the addition of commodity polymers may decrease the penetration of water vapour and oxygen preventing degradation and enhancing their lifetime.

Commodity polymers are insulating, inexpensive, readily available and some are even hygroscopic, meaning they can take on water. Integration of these molecules into the active layer can be easily achieved and could have positive effects. Although, the choice of the polymer is crucial as it can affect the morphology of the active layer and therefore can affect the inner workings of the cell. Therefore, more research is needed in order to identify suitable commodity polymers for specific donor acceptor systems.

ReNU's enhanced doctoral training programme delivered by three uniquely co-located major UK universities, Northumbria (UNN), Durham (DU) and Newcastle (NU), addresses clear skills needs in small-to-medium scale renewable energy (RE) and sustainable distributed energy (DE). It was co-designed by a range of companies and is supported by a balanced portfolio of 27 industrial partners (e.g. Airbus, Siemens and Shell) of which 12 are small or medium size enterprises (SMEs) (e.g. Enocell, Equiwatt and Power Roll). A further 9 partners include Government, not-for-profit and key network organisations. Together these provide a powerful, direct and integrated pathway to a range of impacts that span whole energy systems.

Industrial partners will interact with ReNU in three main ways: (1) through the Strategic Advisory Board; (2) by providing external input to individual doctoral candidate's projects; and (3) by setting Industrial Challenge Mini-Projects. These interactions will directly benefit companies by enabling them to focus ReNU's training programme on particular needs, allowing transfer of best practice in training and state-of-the-art techniques, solution approaches to R&D challenges and generation of intellectual property. Access to ReNU for new industrial partners that may wish to benefit from ReNU is enabled by the involvement of key networks and organisations such as the North East Automotive Alliance, the Engineering Employer Federation, and Knowledge Transfer Network (Energy).

In addition to industrial partners, ReNU includes Government organisations and not for-profit-organisations. These partners provide pathways to create impact via policy and public engagement. Similarly, significant academic impact will be achieved through collaborations with project partners in Singapore, Canada and China. This impact will result in research excellence disseminated through prestigious academic journals and international conferences to the benefit of the global community working on advanced energy materials.