Organic Solar Cells Using Star Conductive Polymers

A new class of organic photovoltaics is proposed based on star conducting polymers. These materials will provide superior hole and/or electron transfer properties that determine the ultimate efficiency of the devices. The star polymer architecture employslinear conjugated arms radiating from a centrosymmetric core, and therfore, unlike the linear arms alone, facilitate carrier transport in three dimensions. The materials have also been demonstrated to have improved processibility and adhesion. Phase I willseek to demonstrate the first photovoltaic cells using these materials based on incorporating soluble donor and acceptor polymers developed at the University of Florida to the star architecture developed at EIC, with a target Phase I solar conversionefficienty of 2-4%.Polymer solar cells are extremely lightweight, with a projected ratio of >600W/kg (10%, AM1) and potentially very inexpensive (<$0.5/peak watt). Military applications include very lightweight space payloads and portable power forground-based operations. Commercially, they would make a great impact in the ~$1 billion photovoltaic market.