Engineering Stable Organic Photovoltaic Materials and Devices
Abstract
This project will develop new, fundamental knowledge to enable the stable and long-term operation of organic photovoltaic devices. T,hrough decades of optimizing the optoelectronic properties of narrow bandgap conjugated polymers and non-fullerene acceptors, impres,sive progress has been made in organic solar cells technology with the power conversion efficiency reaching over 19 percent. However,, the long-term stability of devices is one of the major hurdles that prevent this technology from being widely implemented. Current,ly, there is a knowledge gap in accurately measuring and controlling the thermal properties of conjugated polymer-based optoelectron,ic materials. This gap prevents us from developing rational design rules to engineer optoelectronic materials with a high glass tran,sition temperature for stable device operation at elevated operational temperatures for extended times. Thus, the overall goal of th,is early career investigator proposal is to address this bottleneck by understanding the glass transition phenomenon of the state-of,-the-art conjugated polymers and small molecular acceptors to enable long-term stable solar cell operation through measuring, unders,tanding, and manipulating their glass transition temperature and crystallization behavior. We will achieve this goal through a varie,ty of unique thin-film measurement techniques. These include ultra-fast differential scanning calorimetry which is capable of detect,ing weak thermal transitions of films down to few nanometers and following fast crystallization of conjugated polymers, together wit,h advanced morphology characterization tools such as real-time atomic force microscopy with infrared spectroscopy and in-house and s,ynchrotron-based soft and hard X-ray scattering. We also propose to develop new materials with a high glass transition temperature t,o achieve both high device performance of over 15 percent efficiency and improved device stability under operational conditions over, years. Successfully execute of the proposal will provide much-needed fundamental knowledge to address the device stability issues t,hat hamper the field allowing one to engineer truly stable high-performance polymer solar cells, and open doors to apply this promis,ing technique to provide off-grid energy for naval and civilian needs. The total requested budget for this proposal is $999,990 ove,r a period of five years.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Dec 06, 2022
- Source ID
- N000142312063
Entities
People
- Xiaodan Gu
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of Southern Mississippi