Recovery Act - Enhanced Charge Transport towards High Efficiency Organic Photovoltaics

Advances are needed in efficient solar photovoltaic systems among many other alternative energy sources to reduce security and reliability risks and to reduce environmental impacts. Current technology yields efficiencies above 10% but lack the low cost factor and the flexibility or conformability needed in many markets. The latter two factors can be addressed by the use of organic photovoltaics but their efficiencies are still around 2% on flexible substrates and around 6% on glass at the cell level, due for the most part to poor charge transport among several other reasons. In this project, Fractal Systems, Inc proposes to address the issues associated with organic photovoltaics by engineering the composition of the active layer and the overall device design to enhance charge transport. Our main objective in this effort is to develop simple, reliable and low cost polymer photovoltaics with efficiencies above 10% based on a proprietary technology (patent pending). Bulk heterojunctions will be built and characterized in light of our goal which targets mainly efficiency and transparency using modified active layer compositions relative to the state of the art. We will use glass substrates in our initial effort to prove feasibility of our approach. However, we will also use flexible substrates in Phase II for use in a wider range of applications. Once we achieve the desired high efficiency, we will work with the appropriate parties for full scale development of a viable fabrication process towards commercialization in Phase III with our target being the solar panel industry for homes and commercial buildings. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits:The development of high-performance, low-cost photovoltaic modules, at a cost much lower than that of current technology, will prove to be useful for powering equipment in the commercial and military sectors in addition to providing electricity for homes and commercial buildings. Other uses include the aerospace market, power for remote locations, large area photodetectors, and flexible photovoltaics will be able to power electronics embedded in military clothing and gear.