Singlet fission in self-assembly materials

Research Project, 2020 – 2022

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 energy 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 each high energy photon into two excited entities 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, OTHO, that jointly enables an efficient alignment of light absorbing molecules, a requirement for SF, and compatibility with solar cells. The OTHOs are made in a facile multi-component reaction where each of the components can be varied providing the possibility of generating a library of photoactive molecules. The technique allows us to tailor-make the OTHOs so that optimal alignment of chromophores for SF can be achieved. The project idea of using self-assembly materials such as gels for SF have to date not been reported andhas the potential of substantially impacting the development of more efficient solar cells.