Organic Photovoltaic Materials

A total of 173,000 terawatts (trillion watts) of solar energy strikes the earth continuously per every second, which is more than 10000 times the Global energy consumption per year. One promising technique is the direct conversion of sunlight to electrical energy using photovoltaic cells. Organic materials have gained much attention as emerging technology for solar energy harvesting when compared to conventional PV materilas which are less abundant, having high fabricating cost and large carbon footprint on the environment. Some of the merits of OPV materials are their light weight, low cost, non-toxic raw material intrinsic flexibility, and high throughout large-area printing. A typical OPV device consists of a photoactive layer surrounded by interface layers and sandwiched between the flexible bottom electrode and top metal electrode. Recent developments in OPV materials reveal important insights into structure-property relationships and design aspects that enhance OPV architecture.

  Our research group focuses on design and synthesis of new π-conjugated OPV materials. The versatility to adapt and tune active materials enables the creation of modular designs that meet specific requirements including a choice of colors, shapes, and degrees of transparency. Due to the important features such as semi-transparency, flexibility, light-weight, OPV based devices find many applications including wearable electronics, self-powered electronic skins, Sensors, portable devices for the Internet of Things (IoT), Building Integrated Photovoltaics Systems (BIPV),  indoor energy harvester technology for powering low-power electronics, Agriphotovolatics and Vehicle Integrated Photovoltaics.