Self-assembly singlet fission for solar cell applications

Research Project, 2019 –

To cope with increasing energy demand solar energy stand out as being the most sustainable solution. However, today’s solar cells are not capable of utilizing more than theoretically 33% of the incoming light due to a mismatch between the solar spectrum and the
bandgap of the cell. In other words, energy is being lost in this process because photons have too much or too little energy. We propose to explore this situation by converting the high energy photon into two charge carriers of a more optimal energy for the solar cells and thereby increasing their efficiency. This process is
known as singlet fission (SF). However, SF is associated with major technical difficulties hampering its usability. The technique that we propose is based on a self-assembly material that enables an efficient alignment of light absorbing molecules which would aid and
make SF compatible with solar cells. The project is of high risk but also high gain as it may help the development of more efficient solar cells.

The aim is to develop a supramolecular self-assembly mate-
rial for a singlet fission based solar cell.