Cytec and IMEC to Collaborate on Organic Photovoltaics
Cytec Industries Inc. and IMEC researchers will work to improve the lifetimes of organic photovoltaics, which often have lifetimes of about five years. Cytec, based in New Jersey, has expertise in interfacial engineering and coating technologies.
Staff -- PV Society, 4/9/2009
Specialty chemicals vendor Cytec Industries Inc. (Woodland Park, N.J.) and IMEC (Leuven, Belgium) will do joint R&D on organic photovoltaic devices, seeking to enhance stability and extend lifetimes.
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| Organic photovoltaics can be flexible and cheap, but lifetimes need to be extended by improving nanomorphologies. |
Although much of the research into organic solar cells has focused on increasing the conversion efficiency, an area of equal concern is the operational lifetime, which is often limited to five years. Cytec, which has expertise in interfacial engineering and coating technology, and IMEC will work to stabilize the nanomorphology of the active materials. That is an area where IMEC researchers have achieved progress, showing that the photoactive blend of conjugated polymers and fullerene acceptor molecules is prone to phase segregation under the influence of time and temperature.
The partners also will work to limit the ingress of extrinsic degradation sources of oxygen and water vapor, by developing an encapsulation technology.
The project is co-sponsored by the Institute for the Promotion of Innovation by Science and Technology in Flanders, and will run until March 2011.
