Steep absorption with supramolecular self-assembled functional dyes for vacuum-deposited organic solar cells - STEEP UP

Project summary

Since Heliatek’s start of volume production in 2022, vacuum processed Organic PhotoVoltaics (OPV) is a new way to produce PV, for use on roofs and facades. OPV is independent of imports from critical origin. It uses no rare metals, toxic substances, or solvents. Low temperature processing leads to short energy payback time. Yet, there is a requirement to increase efficiency to better compete with other PV technologies. STEEP UP aims for increased cell efficiency by reduced voltage loss, energetic alignment and steepness of the absorption spectra. Focus is on evaporable absorbers: indolo[1,2-a]indol-3-ones, diketopyrrolopyrroles, and structurally blocked oligomers. Special emphasis will be put on simple structure, scalability and stability of the materials. Aim is 1% efficiency increase in OPV, and 20 years lifetime. This little increase generates a big impact: Converting a 10% Heliatek product to 11%, generates additional 10 MWp electrical power annually, corresponding to 20 M€ value.