Researchers at UCLA have developed a method for increasing the efficiency of polymeric/organic solar cells based on fullerenes and fullerene derivatives that utilize self-assembly to achieve very dense networks. Polymeric solar cells based on fullerene and fullerene derivatives are a clean, renewable, and cheap energy source, however the efficiency does not yet rival that of silicon-based technologies. Previous work to increase the efficiency of these polymeric/organic solar cells focused on increasing the density of active material in the device area. This has previously been accomplished by enhancing the solubility of the fullerene molecules and subjecting the devices to thermal annealing. Both of these techniques lead to improved efficiency by controlling the arrangement of the molecules to provide better packing, yet neither completely solves the problem.
Sunday 6 April 2025