Organic Solar Cells Using Star Conductive Polymers

Continued research and development on anew class of organic photovoltaics is proposed based on star conducting polymers. These materials will provide superior processibility and transport properties that determine the ultimate efficiency of the devices.The star polymer architecture employs linear conjugated arms radiating from a centrosymmetric core, and therefore, unlike the linear arms alone, facilitate carrier transport in three dimensions. The materials have also been demonstrated to have improvedprocessibility and adhesion. Phase I demonstrated synthesis of new star polymers using methods developed at the University of Florida, as well as solar cells using both interpenetrating network and dye sensitized TiO2 (DSSC) structures, with broadbandsolar conversion efficiencies of the latter >2%. The Phase II program seeks to optimize three types of solar cells using these materials (interpenetrating network, nanorod composite, and DSSC), with an AM1 solar efficiency goal of >5% and scale-up to >100cm2 for technology transfer to Air Force terrestrial, drone and space-based systems. Polymer solar cells are extremely lightweight, with a projected ratio of >600W/kg (10%, AM1) and potentially very inexpensive (<$0.5/peak watt). Military applicationsinclude very lightweight space payloads and portable power for ground-based operations. Commercially, they would make a great impact in the ~$1 billion photovoltaic market.