High Efficiency Fullerene/Polymer Solar Cells

APPLICATION OF TECHNOLOGY:
Organic/nanomaterial hybrid solar cells

ADVANTAGES:
Promises improved electrical conduction over fullerene/polymer blends Increases the fraction of the more optically absorbent material

DESCRIPTION:
Currently, the best performing polymer blend solar cells have been based on a 50/50 combination of P3HT and functionalized fullerenes (C60). The disadvantage of this blend system is that a large amount of fullerene material must be used in order to obtain efficient electron conducting channels, as the conduction is based on the fullerene/fullerene interactions. Since the fullerene material is less optically absorbent than the polymer, the result is lower optical absorption over the whole cell.

In order to increase the conversion efficiency of these cells, Berkeley Lab researchers have developed a new configuration that improves the properties of electronic conducting channels while significantly reducing the amount of nanomaterial necessary for that function. This in turn will increase the optical absorption of the overall cell while maintaining the excellent charge separation characteristics of the fullerene/polymer blend.

Inventor(s): Alex Zettl, Jeffrey Grossman

Type of Offer: Licensing



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