Chemistry Scholarships

3rd generation dye-sensitized photovoltaics

Contacts: Udo Bach, Leone Spiccia

The existing generations of solar cells are slowly reaching their theoretical and practical cost and efficiency limits. This project looks beyond the horizon to the materials and technologies required to develop the next generation of photovoltaic devices that will be cheaper, cleaner and more efficient to supply our energy needs for the future. It will focus on the use of nanostructured electromaterials and molecular functional materials as building blocks for a new generation of organic hybrid solar cells. Combining these materials and assembly strategies with novel concepts developed in the area of conventional photovoltaics (e.g. tandem solar cells, upconversion of photons) will enable us to realize plastic solar cells with efficiencies beyond the theoretical limitations of conventional single junction solar cells.

We would hope to find a suitable candidate who is highly motivated to make his contribution to the field of renewable energies. Interested candidates with a background in chemistry, physics, material engineering and semiconductor technology are encouraged to apply. The envisaged work is highly interdisciplinary and involves aspects of electrochemistry, semiconductor device physics, self-assembly of functional organic materials at semiconductor surfaces and nanoparticle synthesis.

The project will be carried out in collaboration with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (Switzerland). It is funded by the new ARC Centre of Excellence in Electromaterials Science (ACES)¹ as well as a Monash Research Fellowship.

Figure 1. Illustration of the tandem cell working principle. A number of solar cells with different bandgaps are stacked according to their bandgap. The light is incident on the cell with the highest bandgap. Each of the cells will therefore only absorb light of an energy very close to its bandgap. Thermalization of charge carriers is thereby strongly suppressed. Figure according to Martin Green, reference²

[1] http://www.arc.gov.au/grant_programs/electromaterials.htm
[2] M. Green, Physica E 14 (2002) 65