Monash University Polymer PV Study
- $840k Funded by ARENA
- $1.68m Total project cost
Summary
This project combines the expertise of researchers at Monash, Flinders, and Macquarie Universities to advance the development of all-polymer solar cells by targeting the key issues of scalability and stability.
How the project works
Materials with ease of synthesis and the ability to be processed in green solvents will be developed at Flinders University. Experiments at Macquarie University will screen the new materials for stability and potential for use in photovoltaic cells, and the most promising materials will be passed on to Monash University where device fabrication and optimisation work will be undertaken. Experiments will also be performed at the Australian Synchrotron to understand the microstructure and morphological stability of polymer blends. Finally, large area cells based on the most promising materials will be fabricated and tested.
Read reports
Report: Bringing All-Polymer Solar Cells Closer to Commercialization Lessons Learnt 2
This second report discusses the project results and lessons learnt to date.
Report: Bringing All-Polymer Solar Cells Closer to Commercialization Lessons Learnt 1
This report discusses the project results and lessons learnt to date.
Area of innovation
Polymer solar cells can be produced rapidly via roll-to-roll printing of electrode and active layer materials avoiding the need for high temperature processing which is common to establish photovoltaic technologies. To accelerate the development of polymer solar cell technology, this project combines chemists, material scientists and physicists to rapidly screen new materials. This approach will ensure that only stable and scalable materials are focused on, maintaining a view toward real-world implementation.
Benefit
This project will help facilitate the development of low-cost, light-weight, flexible solar cells for application in building-integrated PV and portable/wearable PV. These unique properties will enable photovoltaic technology to be deployed to areas where the limitations of current PV technology prohibit its use.
