Synthesis and nanostructuration of a Pi-conjugated polymer for dye sensitized solar cells

π-Conjugated semiconducting organic polymers have gained a widespread interest for their potential application in thefabrication of organic electronic devices.

Efficiency of these devices largely depends on the ability of the polymeric film totransport charge; thus attempts are being made to enhance the charge mobility by improving crystallization, aggregation andorientation of the material during the pre-processing.

Dip coating, spin coating, doctor blading and thermal annealingtechniques are being used for the development of oriented microstructures, however, these techniques are not practicableon a large scale. However, microfluidics is an emerging multidisciplinary field with practical applications in lab-on-a-chiptechnology.

It deals with the precise control, behaviour and manipulation of fluids.

It has widely been used for the controllednucleation and crystallization of small conjugated materials.The aim of this project is to synthesize new soluble conjugated organic polymers by simple solution polycondensationmethod. The monomers and the resulting polymeric material will be characterized by using the standard techniques.

Newmicrochannel system will be designed and fabricated by using polymer, glass or thermoplastics.

The polymer solutions willbe pre-processed (under optimized conditions like temperature, flow rate or magnetic field) by micro-fluid technique forprecise manipulation of crystallization, aggregation and orientation in the solution form. Effect of the variable flow rate,solvent systems and temperatures will be studied.

The processed solution will be then spin coated to fabricate prototype dyesensitized solar cell.

Atomic force Microscopy, Grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering, UV visible spectroscopy willused to investigate the aggregation and formation of clusters.

Electrical measurements, namely current-voltage (I-V) will becarried out to study the transport properties and cell parameters of the device.