Organic Photovoltaics

Date

Apr 29, 2014

Time

4:40 PM - 6:10 PM

Speaker

Prof. Dr. Koen Vandewal

Affiliation

Technische Universität Dresden

Series

TUD Physikalisches Kolloquium

Language

en

Main Topic

Physik

Other Topics

Physik

Host

Prof. Dr. Carsten Timm, Fachrichtung Physik

Description

The use of organic semiconducting materials for the conversion of solar photon energy to electrical energy would enable cheap and fast large scale production of light weight, flexible, color tunable and even semitransparent solar cells. This will result a much more wide spread use of photovoltaics and allow an easier building integration (e.g., solar windows) than is possible today. However, in terms of power conversion efficiency, organic solar cells still have to catch up with the inorganics, even though 12% has already been reached. In this talk, we will use thermodynamic considerations to briefly derive efficiency upper limits for this technology. We address the mechanisms of charge carrier generation and recombination in synthetic organic materials, currently a heavily debated topic. Interesting parallels exist with the primary electron transfer steps of natural photosynthesis, which can serve as an inspiration for device optimization. We explore new device architectures, new IR absorbing materials and nano-structural engineering of materials and interfaces, which will ultimately bring the achieved efficiencies closer to their theoretical upper limits.

Links

• http://tu-dresden.de/veranstaltungen/termin?id=TUD53171b0940cad

Last modified: Apr 28, 2014, 6:11:36 PM