Development of Materials for Green Solvents Processable Polymer Solar Cells

Photovoltaic is a promising technology to convert solar energy into electricity to supply clean energy to human beings.

However, the dominant silicon solar cells are expensive, very polluting during manufacturing and difficult to recycle, which limits their applications.

Plastic solar cells (PSCs), on the other hand, employing organic semiconductors have attracted great attention due to their advantages for being semi-transparent, light-weight, flexible and low cost via roll-to-roll solution process.

The efficiency of the PSCs has been quickly pushed up to 18% on a laboratory scale, comparable to the efficiency of amorphous silicon solar cells.

However, the active layer of PSCs is normally processed by hazardous chlorinated solvents, such as chloroform, chlorobenzene and dichlorobenzene.

These harmful solvents put workers in danger when processing PSCs, which limits the commercial-scale production in sustainable ways.

The aim of this project is to develop materials for PSCs that is processable in green solvents with extremely low cost, fast production speed and an environmentally friendly way. We have novel strategies to reach the desired goals through 5 well-defined work packages.

The success of this project will be of benefit both scientifically and for mankind, as a clean, low-cost energy source will be available.

This project is perfectly in line with one of the Sustainable Development Goals set up by the UN, Affordable and Clean Energy.