Polymer photovoltaics may rival semiconductor-based cells

Improving power efficiencies in polymer—polymer blend photovoltaics

The use of blends of electron and hole transporting polymers has been shown to increase exciton dissociation and efficiency in polymer-based photovoltaics. We compare plain M3EHPPV devices to M3EH-PPV:CN-ether-PPV blend devices, demonstrating the improved performance of blends. We vary the polymer layer thickness and device electrodes for M3EHPPV:CN-ether-PPV polymer blend devices to investigat...

Semiconductor nanowire array: potential substrates for photocatalysis and photovoltaics

A novel vapor–liquid–solid epitaxy (VLSE) process has been developed to synthesize high-density semiconductor nanowire arrays. The nanowires generally are single crystalline and have diameters of 10–200nm and aspect ratios of 10–100. The areal density of the array can readily approach 10 cm . Results based on Si and ZnO nanowire systems are reported here. Because of their single crystallinity a...

Polymer - based solar cells

Conjugated polymers are excellent candidates for use in low-cost electronics and photovoltaics (PV)1. Polymer-based solar cells have reached power conversion efficiencies of 5% in recent reports2–6. Deposition of organics by screen printing, doctor blading, inkjet printing, and spray deposition is possible because these materials can be made soluble. These techniques are required for the high-t...

A Study of Two High Efficiency Energy Conversion Processes: Semiconductor Photovoltaics and Semiconductor Luminescence Refrigeration

Nanocarbon-based photovoltaics.

Carbon materials are excellent candidates for photovoltaic solar cells: they are Earth-abundant, possess high optical absorption, and maintain superior thermal and photostability. Here we report on solar cells with active layers made solely of carbon nanomaterials that present the same advantages of conjugated polymer-based solar cells, namely, solution processable, potentially flexible, and ch...