Polymer Solar Cells

In the first period of our adventure in the field of polymer solar cells (2006-2012), we systematically investigated the molecular structure of conjugated polymers for solar cells, including (a) backbone, (b) side chains, and (c) substituents. Our goal was to derive structure-property relationships for conjugated polymers used in bulk heterojunction solar cells, which would facilitate the further design and synthesis of novel conjugated polymers to achieve even higher efficiencies. This systematic approach has paid off significantly; we discovered many useful design principles and applied them to create many novel conjugated polymers that showed exceptionally high device efficiencies at the time.

Currently we are in the second period (2012-present), where we have been focused on disclosing further fundamental working principles on why certain conjugated polymers show exceptional high energy conversion efficiencies, in addition to further exploring novel design and synthesis of conjugated polymers.