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Is organic photovoltaics promising for indoor applications?

Harrison K. H. Lee, Zhe Li, James Durrant Orcid Logo, Wing C. Tsoi, Wing Chung Tsoi Orcid Logo

Applied Physics Letters, Volume: 108, Issue: 25, Start page: 253301

Swansea University Authors: James Durrant Orcid Logo, Wing Chung Tsoi Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1063/1.4954268

Abstract

This work utilizes organic photovoltaics (OPV) for indoor applications, such as powering small electronic devices or wireless connected Internet of Things. Three representative polymer-based OPV systems, namely, poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl), poly[N-9′-heptadecanyl-2,7-carbazole-alt-5,5-(4′,7′-di-...

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Published in: Applied Physics Letters
ISSN: 0003-6951 1077-3118
Published: 2016
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa32050
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Abstract: This work utilizes organic photovoltaics (OPV) for indoor applications, such as powering small electronic devices or wireless connected Internet of Things. Three representative polymer-based OPV systems, namely, poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl), poly[N-9′-heptadecanyl-2,7-carbazole-alt-5,5-(4′,7′-di-2-thienyl-2′,1′,3′-benzothiadiazole)], and poly[[4,8-bis[(2-ethylhexyl)oxy]benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene-2,6-diyl][3-fluoro-2-[(2-ethylhexyl)carbonyl]thieno[3,4-b]thiophenediyl]], were selected as the donor materials in blend with fullerene derivatives for comparison under low light level condition using fluorescent lamps. PCDTBT based devices are found to be the best performing system, generating 13.9 μW/cm2 corresponding to 16.6% power conversion efficiency at 300 lx, although PTB7 based devices show the highest efficiency under one sun conditions. This high performance suggests that OPV is competitive to the other PV technologies under low light condition despite much lower performance under one sun condition. Different properties of these devices are studied to explain the competitive performance at low light level. A low energy consuming method for maximum power point tracking is introduced for the operation of the OPV devices. Finally, a 14 cm × 14 cm OPV module with 100 cm2 active area is demonstrated for real applications. These findings suggest that OPV, in particular, PCDTBT based devices, could be a promising candidate for indoor applications.
Keywords: Illumination, Band gap, Organic materials, Organic photovoltaics, Light emitting diodes
College: Faculty of Science and Engineering
Issue: 25
Start Page: 253301