Chemistry Prof. Tim Swager in collaboration with the MTL director Prof. Vladimir Bulović, graduate student Jose Lobez, and Dr. Trisha Andrew, constructed blended heterojunction polymeric photovoltaic cells that show 30% power conversion efficiency increase when doped with a small amount (0.25%) of a polymer additive. Additives that sit at the donor-acceptor interface "open a new direction to polymer solar cell research," says Prof. Yang Yang, an electronic materials researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles.
In a polymer-based photovoltaic cell, two electrically conductive polymers are sandwiched against each other, one called a donor polymer and the other called an acceptor polymer. When light strikes the polymers, it creates a one-way flow of electricity from the donor toward the acceptor material.
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