High-efficiency Hybrid Solar Cells for Micro-generation


A consortium of chemists, physicists, materials scientists and electrical engineers at Manchester University and Imperial College London have been awarded £1.5 M by the EPSRC to produce new affordable, high-efficiency solar cells for energy generation.

Alternatives to fossil fuel electricity sources are urgently needed, both for mitigation of climate change and future electricity supply. Widespread implementation of solar electricity requires a step-change in the cost of solar power. The consortium, led by Paul O'Brien (Manchester University) and Jenny Nelson (Imperial College London), will investigate new designs for hybrid organic/inorganic devices which integrate flexibility and stability with inexpensive materials and solution based processing. The consortium aims to construct affordable demonstration hybrid solar cells that could be mass-produced with long-term potential to achieve energy conversion efficiency of 10%.

The full list of partners is as follows:-

From Manchester University: Professor Paul O'Brien (School of Chemistry), Professor Mike Turner (School of Chemistry), Dr Brian Saunders (School of Materials), Professor Wendy Flavell (School of Physics and Astronomy), Dr David Binks (School of Physics and Astronomy), Dr Joseph Mutale (School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering) and Professor Daniel Kirschen (School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering).

From Imperial College: Dr Jenny Nelson (Department of Chemistry) and Professor James Durrant (Department of Chemistry).

This project EP/E036287/1 is funded by the EPSRC’s Materials for Energy Programme and will employ 4 postdoctoral research associates and 2 PhD students. By spreading the work across chemistry, physics and materials departments the consortium will investigate materials synthesis and characterisation, device fabrication and system integration. A successful project outcome has the potential to provide a step-change solar cell technology.

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Papers Published from this Project

 

This page is maintained by Lesley Smith and was last updated in May 2010. Comments and feedback would be very welcome.