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We connect top engineering talent with the world's most innovative companies
We empower professionals with advanced engineering and tech education to grow careers.
We recognize outstanding achievements in engineering, innovation, and technology.
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Enhancing the power conversion efficiency (PCE) and operational stability is imperative for the commercial viability of polymer solar cells (PSCs).
Researchers in China have developed a new type of polymer solar cells that deliver a stable power conversion performance.
Developed by researchers from Wuhan University of Technology, the solar cells successfully achieved 19.1% efficiency.
Published in the journal Matter, the underlying mechanisms behind the inferior photochemical of polymer acceptor and develops a method to enhance both efficiency and stability through small-molecule incorporation.
Researchers have also maintained that polymer solar cells offer advantages such as light weight, flexibility, and solution processability, but their practical application has long been limited by insufficient operational stability and performance.
“By disentangling polymer chains and promoting ordered molecular packing, the resulting devices achieve a promising power conversion efficiency of 19.1%, along with a robust T97 lifetime exceeding 2,000 h in air,” said researchers in the study.
The research team claimed that their findings pave the way for viable organic photovoltaic materials and device architectures, advancing polymer solar cells toward commercialization and their potential application in sustainable, distributed energy systems.
The polymer solar cell is able to retain 97% of its performance after 2,000 hours in air. By blending small-molecule acceptors into polymeric matrices, the research team improved molecular packing, enhancing both stability and charge transport for “ultra-stable” flexible devices, reported PV Magazine.
Researchers also claimed that the mechanism behind the weak photostability of polymeric acceptor is revealed.
The team also highlighted that the enhancing the power conversion efficiency (PCE) and operational stability is imperative for the commercial viability of polymer solar cells (PSCs).
The work investigates the structural and morphological stability of a state-of-the-art polymeric acceptor (PMA) PY-IT through a range of light-soaking and thermal relaxation measurements.
“We reveal that, in addition to the weak C–C bond at the A-D-A linkage common to small molecular acceptors (SMAs), PMAs possess an extra weak bond between repeating units, leading to inferior photochemical stability. Encouragingly, incorporating SMA into PMA is found to mitigate chain entanglement and reduce free volume, thereby improving molecular packing and enhancing both photochemical and thermal stability,” said researchers in the study.
“Simple strategy simultaneously creates efficient pathways for charge transport whilst reducing free volume among the photoactive layer. The resulting devices retain 97% of the initial efficiency after 2,000 hours of operation in air, with extrapolated lifetime exceeding 100,000 hours,” Tao Wang, co-author of the research, told PV Magazine.
“This work elucidates how molecular and morphological structures of organic semiconductors govern the device lifetime, and provides a practical pathway toward commercialization of flexible organic photovoltaics.”
Prabhat, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, is a tech and defense journalist. While he enjoys writing on modern weapons and emerging tech, he has also reported on global politics and business. He has been previously associated with well-known media houses, including the International Business Times (Singapore Edition) and ANI.
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