High-Efficiency Solar Cells May Use Organic Film

Collaborative work between researchers at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge (Cambridge, UK) and the Max-Planck Institut (Mainz, Germany) has resulted in an organic photovoltaic film that offers a quantum efficiency of up to 34% for incident light of 490 nm. The researchers used a simple and economical process to combine the liquid crystal material hexa-perihexabenzocoronene with a perylene dye in the thin film. The two materials separate vertically as they come out of solution to form the structure that will convert light energy into electrical charge.

The main advantage of using polymers in this application instead of inorganic photovoltaic cells is their potential low production cost. The work is only in its starting phase, the researchers say, because the efficiencies over a wide wavelength band need to be improved. Cells using these organic materials may deteriorate more rapidly than inorganic cells, but if they need to be replaced every five years, this will be acceptable if they are cheap enough.

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