Nanomaterials for photovoltaic conversion

A promising route for photovoltaic conversion has emerged from the combination of electroactive nanomaterials and small bandgap polymers. The formation of bulk heterojunctions resulting from the extended interfaces leads to efficient dissociation of the charge pairs generated under sunlight shown by the rapid extinction of the polymer photoluminescence for increasing contents of fullerenes or TiO2 nanoparticles in MEH-PPV or PVK. Unconventional elaboration routes of the blends have been developed to increase the nanofiller dispersion and inhibit phase separation at high concentration. The size reduction of the acceptor domains led to a complete quenching of the radiative recombinations, obtained by specific solvent processing of MEH-PPV / C60 nanocomposites or sol gel elaboration of TiO2 nanoparticles in a PVK film. A simultaneous increase of the photocurrents could be achieved by the dispersion and size optimisation of the nanofillers. In situ generation of silver particles in MEH-PPV provides an example of enhanced charge separation induced by the plasmon resonance at the metal/polymer interface. The strong influence of the molecular morphology on the nanocomposite properties emphasizes the large improvements which can still be gained on the performances of organic solar cells.