Wednesday, January 08, 2014: Researchers have discovered a simple and affordable way to change the molecular construction of polymer that is commonly used in solar cells. They claim that it can boost the solar cell efficiency by up to 30 per cent.
One of the most common methods to increase solar cell efficiency is by adding a fluorine atom to the polymer’s molecular backbone. It is a difficult and long process and involves considerable material fabrication costs.
Now the team of chemists headed by Jianhui Hou from Chinese Academy of Sciences built a new polymer namely PBT-OP from chemically modified monomers. By experimenting the internal structure of the polymer, it got simpler for the researchers to bring in a change in the molecular orbital level.
PBT-OP displayed an open circuit voltage, that is available from a solar cell, value of 0.78 volts, which is up by 36 per cent over the 0.6 volt average from similar polymers.
According to a Business Standard report, co-author Harald Ade said, “The possible drawback in changing the molecular structure of these materials is that you may enhance one aspect of the solar cell but inadvertently create unintended consequences in devices that defeat the initial intent. In this case, we have found a chemically easy way to change the electronic structure and enhance device efficiency by capturing a lager fraction of the light’s energy, without changing the material’s ability to absorb, create and transport energy.”
