Green Chemistry Organic Solar Cells

In contrast to conventionally used silicon which is manufactured by energy intensive melting processes organic materials can be applied directly from solutions onto a carrier film or glass carrier.

Green chemistry organic solar cells.

New journal of chemistry 2018. This is the amount of time a solar cell must operate before it generates the same amount of energy as its embodied energy. Lipomi essentially all methods of energy production e g. Green chemistry for organic solar cells daniel j.

Organic solar cells oscs are one of the emerging photovoltaic pv technologies and are classified as third generation solar cells with organic polymer material as the light absorbing layer. Handbook of organic materials for optical and opto electronic devices 2013. The p type silicon is produced by adding atoms such as boron or gallium that have one less electron in their outer energy level than does silicon. Hydrocarbon solvents enable the processing of high performance organic solar cells.

Burke and darren j. 1954 first silicon solar cell bell lab by chapin fuller and pearson η 6 1970s surge in research to harness solar energy 1986 heterojunctionorganic solar cell by tang of eastman kodak 2007 highest efficiency solar cells with ηηη 40 7 in spectrolab a big surge in solar cells research development is underway. Ranbir singh min kim jae joon lee tengling ye panagiotis e. Embodied energy is part of an even broader picture.

A solar cell is made of two types of semiconductors called p type and n type silicon. Because boron has one less electron than is required to form the bonds with the surrounding silicon atoms an electron vacancy or hole is created. Organic solar cells oscs offer a relevant case in point when considering challenges imposed by green manufacturing oscs usually rely on a blend of electron donating and electron accepting semiconductors with specific energetic optical and transport properties in order to achieve efficient harvesting of sunlight and photocurrent generation. Yu g gao j hummelen.

Green chemistry is of course not the only avenue the community can pursue to lessen the environmental impact of organic solar modules. Organic solar cells usually consist of two different organic components possessing the necessary semiconductor properties. We then identified green chemistry applied to the synthesis of semiconducting polymers as one way to mitigate environmental externalities of manufacturing organic solar cells.