Solar Cell Having Organic Nanowires

Stanford researchers are using nanowires (NWs) to raise the performance of organic solar cells. Organic solar cells' main weakness is their lack of efficiency compared to in-organic solar cells. Incorporating NWs into the polymer layer provides a more direct electron path to the electrode, which reduces some of the cells' inefficiencies. Stanford's process, however, goes even further to improve the power conversion efficiency by aligning the NWs and increasing the carrier mobility of each NW. In addition, this invention enables solution-processing of organic semiconducting materials that are difficult to process by typical solution-based methods such as spin-coating, screen-printing, and inkjet printing. The techniques have great potential for achieving solution-processable high-performance organic photovoltaic electronics and devices.

Stage of Research
Synthesized nanowires for organic solar cells.