Emerging Solar Cell Technology: Advances in Solid-state Polymer Hybrid Dye-sensitized Solar Cells

and Abstract My project this summer took place in the lab of Dr. in the Oxford Physics Department. I worked for ten weeks on solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells that incorporated the polymer hole-transporter poly(3-hexylthiopene) (P3HT) and a number of different dyes. The larger goal of the project is to extend solid-state solar cells' photoresponse by taking advantage of a favorable energy-transfer mechanism between P3HT and dyes that absorb close to the onset of the infrared spectrum. As the system is not fully understood—further steps must be taken to develop a working predictive model of the dye-sensitized solar cell—, the experimental approach tends to be more or less in the realm of try-lots-of-things-out-and-see-if-they-work. Therefore, I spent large amounts of time in the lab overwhelmed by the prospect of a nearly infinite number of permutations of parameters to test. The technology has much promise in large part because so much has yet to be tried, and one of the most important things I learned was the necessity of developing effective heuristics for narrowing down the choices of what to pursue. Here, I report some of the more relevant experiments and findings that fit well within the broader (and rapidly expanding) context of dye-sensitized cell research.