Brian Collins
Washington State University, WA·Materials Science
Organic solar cells, made from carbon-based molecules, could be printed cheaply onto flexible surfaces without the toxic lead found in some newer solar materials. They need two kinds of molecules: one that donates electrons and one that accepts them, so that charge can form and move when light hits.
- Fields
Materials Science
Physics
Chemistry
- Topics
organic photovoltaics
organic solar cells
ternary blends
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2027
What they work on
- Map the nanoscale arrangement of molecules in three- and four-component organic solar cell blends using spectral analysis of resonant soft X-ray nanoprobes, and correlate structure with device performance.
- Analyze charge generation dynamics and energetics under device-relevant conditions to identify the excited-state pathways responsible for the ternary advantage.
- Test whether guest molecules collecting at donor-acceptor interfaces lower energy barriers to charge separation, while guests mixed into other domains tune charge transport and non-radiative losses.
- Establish the thermodynamic and kinetic limits of these mechanisms to provide a model for optimizing blends through molecular design and device processing.
More about the research
Blends of three or four molecule types have recently pushed efficiencies above 20%. However, why these extra components help, called the "ternary advantage," is not understood, which slows further progress.
Why it matters
Understanding why three- and four-molecule blends perform better could guide the design of printed, lead-free organic solar panels with high efficiency. Such panels could compete in the marketplace as low-cost, flexible renewable energy. The findings could also inform other flexible and biocompatible organic electronic devices.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Francis Spano
Temple University, PA·Chemistry
Develop a Holstein-Peierls Hamiltonian model of molecular H- and J-aggregates that treats excimer formation and emission fully quantum mechanically, alongside absorption and energy transport.
Valentine Vullev
University of California-Riverside, CA·Chemistry
Develop spectroscopic methods using electrochromism (the optical Stark effect, in which local electric fields shift absorption spectra) to probe and map molecular dipoles and the nanometer-scale fields they generate.
Lin Chen
Northwestern University, IL·Chemistry
Track how charge carriers and excitons localize and evolve in organic metal halide hybrids on femtosecond timescales using ultrafast optical spectroscopy.
The school
Washington State University: 22 labs on PI Pages, $403M a year on research, 259 research doctorates a year.
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