SPP 1355:  Elementary Processes of Organic Photovoltaics

Photovoltaic, the direct conversation of sunlight into electric power, is an attractive kind of renewable energy supply. However, despite of great efforts in research and development, photovoltaic is still too cost-intensive. Organic solar cells are a promising way towards low-price photovoltaic. The main advantages are easy preparation, low-cost materials and processing technology. Also the possibility of producing flexible devices enables huge application range.
But low power efficiency (about 5 percent research cell efficiency) and open questions like long-term stability of organic solar cells are still limiting a broad application. In order to fulfil the complex requirements of broad application, such fundamental questions and the elementary processes of organic photovoltaic need to be investigated. Main topics of the Priority Programme are: How can the power efficiency be increased? Which elementary electro- and photochemical processes are limiting the long-term stability? Which new materials can be applied as absorber and transport materials? The Priority Programme focusses on generating new materials for organic solid-state solar cells, the correlation between photophysical and morphological properties of layers and the impact of surfaces. The modelling of complete elementary processes in solar cells and new approaches of their cell structures should be investigated. The Priority Programme should not aim for otimising the applied research, but should focus on basic questions and the knowledge of elementary processes and discover new materials and concepts. Based on these results, applied research can face up to a directed research towards devices with higher efficiency and longer life time.
The Priority Programme should raise the research on organic solar cells to a new level in Germany. The Priority Programme should help to overcome the obstacles on the way to a broad application of photovoltaics. In particular, it should help to strengthen the interdisciplinary field of research, which crosses the boundaries of the disciplines of chemistry, physics and electrical engineering, and should help to resolve fundamental questions.

DFG Programme Priority Programmes

International Connection Austria, Denmark, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom

• An integrated approach towards highly efficient single and multi-junction bulk-heterojunction solar cells based on functionalized oligothiophenes (Applicants Bäuerle, Peter ;  Janssen, René ;  Schmidt, Volker )
• Bulk heterojunction photovoltaic cells based on Merocyanine dye aggregates (Applicants Engels, Bernd ;  Meerholz, Klaus ;  Würthner, Frank )
• Charge Photogeneration and extraction in polymer: fullerene bulk heterojunction organic solar cells (Applicants Andrienko, Denis ;  Deibel, Carsten ;  Laquai, Frédéric ;  Neher, Dieter )
• Charge separation at nanostructured molecular donor-acceptor interfaces (Applicants Brütting, Wolfgang ;  Koch, Norbert ;  Pflaum, Jens ;  Schreiber, Frank )
• Control of the nanoscale morphology of bulk heterojunction solar cells via chemical assembly of low bandgap conjugated polymers on nanoparticle support (Applicants Kiriy, Anton ;  Krebs, Frederic Christian )
• Controlled morphologies by molecular design and nano-embossing (Applicants Müllen, Klaus ;  Müller-Buschbaum, Peter ;  Schmidt-Mende, Ph.D., Lukas )
• Controlling of the interplay between order and disorder by side-chain based statistic block-copolymers for photovoltaics (Applicants Egbe, Daniel Ayuk Mbi ;  Hoppe, Harald ;  Rathgeber, Silke )
• Controlling the electronic interface properties in polymer-fullerene bulk-heterojunction solar cells (Applicants Brabec, Christoph J. ;  Dyakonov, Vladimir )
• Electronic properties of interfaces with conjugated oligo- and polymers (Applicant Tegeder, Petra )
• Electronic properties of interfaces with conjugated polymers and polyelectrolytes (Applicant Koch, Norbert )
• Influence of electric fields on morphology and performance of compatibilized all-polymer solar cells (Applicants Sommer, Michael ;  Würfel, Uli )
• Interface properties and electronic structure of thiophene-based materials for organic solar cells (Applicants Chassé, Thomas ;  Scherf, Ullrich )
• Interplay between microscopic structure and intermolecular charge transfer processes in polymer-fullerene bulk-heterojunctions (Applicants Dyakonov, Vladimir ;  Magerle, Robert )
• Koordinatorantrag (Applicant Leo, Karl )
• Low bandgap dendrimer systems: Synthesis, spectroscopy and microscopy of composite films for photovoltaics (Applicants da Como, Enrico ;  von Hauff, Elizabeth ;  Holder, Elisabeth )
• Near IR sensitization of polymer/fullerene solar cells: controlling the morphology and transport in ternary blends (Applicants Brabec, Christoph J. ;  Scherf, Ullrich )
• Organic solar cells based on oligothiophene derivatives (Applicants Bäuerle, Peter ;  Leo, Karl )
• Organic solar cells from optimized self-assembling block copolymers with controlled nanoscale morphology (Applicants Hoppe, Harald ;  Thelakkat, Mukundan ;  Thurn-Albrecht, Thomas )
• p-B-n organic junctions for efficient photovoltaics (Applicants da Como, Enrico ;  von Hauff, Elizabeth ;  Ludwigs, Sabine )
• Photogeneration, recombination and extraction of charge carriers in organic solar cells (Applicants Andrienko, Denis ;  Deibel, Carsten )
• Plasmon-mediated organic photovoltaics (Applicant Leo, Karl )
• Polymeric solar cells: Molecular orientation, structure, and optoelectronic performance (Applicants Barrena, Esther ;  Lemmer, Ulrich ;  Schabel, Wilhelm )
• Sub-bandgap absorption in polymer-fullerene solar cells (Applicant Gobsch, Gerhard Ernst )
• Tuning of polymer aggregation and optimization of the active layer morphology of all-polymer solar cells incorporating rylene-based acceptor polymers (Applicants Neher, Dieter ;  Scherf, Ullrich )

Spokesperson Professor Dr. Karl Leo