Hybrid solar cells the focus of new European project
A new European initiative dubbed MOLESOL has been set up to fabricate low cost, high efficiency solar cells.
According to Belgian research firm imec, which is supporting the three year project, the envisioned hybrid device will consist of dye monolayers that are linked through an organic molecular wire to a semiconducting thin film deposited on a transparent substrate.
A molecular wire charge platform is also being developed, which will make use of short, optimised molecular wires that couple the dye onto the semiconducting surface. The ITO normally used as the electrode in dye sensitised solar cells will be replaced by a transparent wide bandgap p type semiconductor like graphene or diamond.
The researchers are hoping to achieve efficiencies above 11%, compared to the 8.3% achieved by today's organic solar cells.
