📋 Tender Overview
The Semi-Paracrystalline Organization In Polymers: Towards Stable Organic Solar Cells
Objective
Most advanced semiconducting polymers do not seem to fit in the traditional structural clasification of polymers, which labels polymers as amorphous, semicrystalline or paracrystalline. In fact, a single semiconducting polymer can be interchangeably identified as amorphous, semicrystalline or paracrystalline depending on the characterization method used. Given the interlink between microstructure and optoelectronic properties in organic semiconductors, this vagueness has far-reaching consequences on the optimization of organic electronic devices, e.g. contributing, in the case of organic solar cells, to the current lack of solutions for their severe instability issues. The vision of paracryst is to fundamentally re-think the basic structural principles of polymeric semiconductors to finally decipher their solid-state microstructure. To achieve so, paracryst will use, and build upon the new concept of semi-paracrystallinity, i.e. the fourth structural model for polymers recently introduced by the applicant. The new semi-paracrystalline model puts in our hands a new toolkit that will be here directed to i) rationalize the so far elusive microstructure of semiconducting polymers, to ii) deliver more-precise structure-properties relationships for these materials, and iii) to induce major improvements in devices, starting with increasing the stability of organic solar cells. Gaining insight into a newly discovered semi-paracrystallinity, paracryst will reshape the very foundations of the physics of polymers. Moreover, it will induce a paradigm shift in how structure-function relationships are delineated in semiconducting polymers, impacting the whole organic electronics arena, from bioelectronics to neuromorphic computing to wearable electronics. But specifically, as proof of feasibility, paracryst will employ the semi-paracrystalline model to find once and for all efficient solutions to the degradation issue that is hampering the scaling-up of organic photovoltaics.
Funded Under
European Research Council (Erc)
Total Cost
€ 1 999 000,00
Eu Contribution
€ 1 999 000,00
Coordinated By
Universidade Da Coruna
Spain
