Surpassing the Exciton Diffusion Limit in Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Sensitized Solar Cells.

Semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotube (s-SWNT) light sensitized devices, such as infrared photodetectors and solar cells, have recently been widely reported. Despite their excellent individual electrical properties, efficient carrier transport from one carbon nanotube to another remains a fundamental challenge. Specifically, photovoltaic devices with active layers made from s-SWNTs have suffered from low efficiencies caused by three main challenges: the overwhelming presence of high-bandgap polymers in the films, the weak bandgap offset between the LUMO of the s-SWNTs and the acceptor C, and the limited exciton diffusion length from one SWNT to another of around 5 nm that limits the carrier extraction efficiency.

Tuning the Morphology of Solution-Sheared P3HT:PCBM Films.

Unlabelled: Organic bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells are a promising alternative for future clean-energy applications. However, to become attractive for consumer applications, such as wearable, flexible, or semitransparent power-generating electronics, they need to be manufactured by high-throughput, low-cost, large-area-capable printing techniques. However, most research reported on BHJ solar cells is conducted using spin coating, a single batch fabrication method, thus limiting the reported results to the research lab.