Organic and Bio-inspired Solar Cells – from single molecules to the complete device
Chemical and engineering tools for integrating bio and molecular layers into photovoltaic cells.
Chemical and engineering tools for integrating bio and molecular layers into photovoltaic cells.
Research in our lab is focused on constructing a bio-inspired solar cell based on incorporating photo-active bio-molecules and specially designed polymers into a solid-state device. To this end we use doped macro-molecules or modified Photo System 1 proteins (synthesised by Carmeli), and water-soluble conducting polymers (Herrmann) to construct the bio-inspired photovoltaic cell. In this systems-approach we develop chemical and engineering tools that allow for the integration of the soft bio and molecular layers into the solid-state photovoltaic device. These tools include the p- and n- type doping of macro-molecules, the use of surface chemistry to form self-assembled monolayers of the molecules, enhancement of the photovoltaic signal by plasmonic interactions, and the development of polymer and inorganic
collaboration with Andreas Herrmann