Performance Limits of Indoor Photovoltaics Based on Disordered Organic Semiconductors and Perovskites

Austin Kay^a, Maura Fitzsimons^a, Gregory Burwell^a, Paul Meredith^a, Ardalan Armin^a, Oskar Sandberg^a

^aSustainable Advanced Materials (Sêr-SAM), Department of Physics, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, United Kingdom

Materials for Sustainable Development Conference (MATSUS)
Proceedings of MATSUS Fall 2023 Conference (MATSUSFall23)

#AppPV - Application Targets for Next Generation Photovoltaics

Torremolinos, Spain, 2023 October 16th - 20th

Organizers: Ardalan Armin and Marina Freitag

Oral, Austin Kay, presentation 141
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.matsus.2023.141
Publication date: 18th July 2023

Due to a number of desirable attributes, including tailorable optical properties and scalable, low-embodied energy fabrication techniques, next-generation photovoltaics based on organic semiconductors and perovskites show great potential for a variety of niche applications. Indoor photovoltaics (IPVs) are one such application; in the coming decades, IPVs promise to reduce the carbon footprint associated with networked Internet-of-Things devices by recycling low-intensity, artificial light (generated by, e.g., LEDs and fluorescent lamps) to power them.^[1] Due to the relative infancy of the field, however, the performance limits of organic semiconductors and perovskites in indoor applications are poorly understood, and the most suitable photo-active materials are yet to be identified. In the work presented here, we therefore step beyond the conventional Shockley-Queisser model to present a thermodynamic limit of IPV performance that accounts for the effects of intrinsic material characteristics, including sub-gap absorption, energetic disorder, and non-radiative open-circuit voltage loss.^[2-4] Following this, we present a methodology that utilizes a device’s photovoltaic external quantum efficiency spectrum and its open-circuit voltage under one-Sun conditions to predict its performance under illumination by any spectrum, at any intensity.^[5] We apply this methodology to current state-of-the-art photovoltaics (including inorganics, organics, and perovskites) to predict which could perform best under typical indoor light sources.

References:

[1] Burwell, G., O.J. Sandberg, W. Li, P. Meredith, M. Carnie, and A. Armin, Scaling Considerations for Organic Photovoltaics for Indoor Applications. Solar RRL, 2022. 6(7): p. 2200315.

[2] Kaiser, C., O.J. Sandberg, N. Zarrabi, W. Li, P. Meredith, and A. Armin, A Universal Urbach Rule for Disordered Organic Semiconductors. Nature Communications, 2021. 12(1): p. 3988.

[3] Kay, A.M., O.J. Sandberg, N. Zarrabi, W. Li, S. Zeiske, C. Kaiser, P. Meredith, and A. Armin, Quantifying the Excitonic Static Disorder in Organic Semiconductors. Advanced Functional Materials, 2022. 32(32): p. 2113181.

[4] Ullbrich, S., J. Benduhn, X. Jia, V.C. Nikolis, K. Tvingstedt, F. Piersimoni, S. Roland, Y. Liu, J. Wu, A. Fischer, D. Neher, S. Reineke, D. Spoltore, and K. Vandewal, Emissive and Charge-Generating Donor–Acceptor Interfaces for Organic Optoelectronics with Low Voltage Losses. Nature Materials, 2019. 18(5): p. 459-464.

[5] Kay, A.M., M. Fitzsimons, B. Gregory, P. Meredith, A. Armin, and O.J. Sandberg, The Thermodynamic Limit of Indoor Photovoltaics Based on Energetically-Disordered Molecular Semiconductors. Accepted for publication in Solar RRL, 2023. arXiv preprint: https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.02004

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