Strategies to Increase Open Circuit Voltage in Organic Photovoltaics

The record power conversion efficiency of organic photovoltaic devices has continuously increased over the past decade. At the forefront of this increase has been enhanced understanding and precise control of the material and physical properties which govern device performance. While organic photovoltaics have achieved near unity incident photon to electron quantum efficiency, the photovoltage of organic devices fall strikingly short of theoretical limits and pale in comparison to inorganic devices. This talk aims to highlight efforts to combat this issue, proposing that increasing the open circuit voltage is the single most important task if the trend of increasing performance is to continue. First, the phenomena of symmetry breaking charge transfer will be introduced and its application in organic photovoltaic devices will be discussed. This is followed a discussion of sexithiophene and tetraphenyldibenzoperiflanthrene based devices.
Andrew Bartynski is a Chemical Engineering doctoral student in the research group of Prof. Mark Thompson at the University of Southern California. Prior to USC, he earned a bachelor of science with honors in Chemical Engineering with a specialization in polymer science from Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA in 2010. At USC, Andrew has acquired significant experience in the fabrication of materials and devices for organic photovoltaic applications. His graduate work has focused on improving the efficiency of organic photovoltaic devices through control of material properties with a focus on increasing the open-circuit voltage. Andrew has coauthored several papers in refereed journals and given presentations at the Gordon Research Seminar on Electronic Processes in Organic Materials in addition to ACS and MRS national meetings.