New Non-Fullerene Acceptors to Reduce Non-Radiative Recombination Losses in Organic Photovoltaics.

Abstract

The objective of this research project is to develop new materials and the fundamental understanding enabling lightweight, flexible, conformal, rugged, and low-cost portable power sources for Navy and Marine applications based on organic photovoltaics to approach their theoretical performance limits. Since the early days of organic photovoltaics (OPVs), photoluminescence (PL) quenching has been used as a proxy to screen donor/acceptor blends. However, selecting composites based on high degrees of efficient PL quenching biases systems towards high levels of non-radiative recombination losses. Instead this proposal will emphasize the development of new donor materials, and new non-fullerene materials with an emphasis onmaintain high-photoluminescence quantum yields for non-geminate recombination of carriers at the D/A interface. To this end we will pursue the following tasks:1) We will explore new donor polymer chemistry, and non-fullerene acceptor chemistry to optimize the energy of the interfacial CT state while focusing on reducing non-radiative recombination losses in both donor polymer and non-fullerene acceptors and preservingdesirable charge transfer properties.2) We will tailor the molecular design and processing of these D/A blends to maximize their performance in OPV devices as a platform for understanding the factors governing performance. We will do so by combining device measurements with structural/morphologicalcharacterization, including conventional diffraction/TEM) as well as in situ structural probes.3) We will systematically elucidate the thermodynamics and kinetics governing charge separation and recombination at the donor/acceptor interfaces in these blends to understand how to preserve high emission quantum yields while allowing high photocurrent extraction ~ a fundamental requirement to approaching the Shockley-Quiesser limit. We will accomplish thistask by bringing to bear a unique suite of device and spectroscopic characterization tools to complement our strength in materials design.

Document Details

Document Type
DoD Grant Award
Publication Date
Feb 03, 2017
Source ID
N000141712201

Entities

People

  • David Ginger

Organizations

  • Office of Naval Research
  • United States Navy
  • University of Washington

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Materials science

Readers

  • Nanocomposite Materials Science
  • Quantum Dot Semiconductor Device Photonics and Graphene Optoelectronic Materials and THz Physics.
  • Solar Photovoltaics and Thermoelectric Devices.

Technology Areas

  • Quantum Computing