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Organic solar cells : perspectives for the future !
Research on organic solar cells is the subject of intense competition at the international level. Although their performances are still far lower than those of "conventional" cells made of crystalline silicon, which achieve efficiencies of 12-15%, they offer the advantage of combining low energy cost [1], low financial cost, and low environmental impact. Another advantage : their production based on solution processes will allow the coverage of large areas and work on flexible substrates, hence numerous applications : packaging, textiles, flexible screens, recharge for cell phones…
Over the past ten years, bulk heterojunction organic solar cells have been made using polymer materials. Although these cells are currently the most efficient (efficiency close to 8% early in 2010), the use of polymers poses problems in terms of synthesis, purification, structure control and reproducibility.
To circumvent these obstacles, researchers from Angers have suggested replacing the polymers with soluble molecules whose structure is perfectly defined. While the efficiencies of the first prototypes were of the order of 0.20% in 2005, they are now reaching 3.00% with this type of cell. An American team managed to achieve efficiency in excess of 4.00% by combining new molecules and derivatives of fullerene C70. This research could rapidly make this process viable.
Groupe « Systèmes conjugués Linéaires » de l’Institut des sciences et technologies moléculaires d’Angers, CNRS-Université d’Angers
[1] The production of silicon photovoltaic cells requires very high temperatures.
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