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IMEC to develop organic multi-junction solar cells for Plextronics
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IMEC and Plextronics, Inc. are to partner on the further development of Plextronics ‘Plexcore’ branded materials and inks to boost the efficiency levels of its solar cells. IMEC aims to develop organic multi-junction solar cells with efficiency of 10 percent by 2012 with an average efficiency of 7 percent (+/- 0.5 percent) and solar cell lifetime of 5 years.
“Plextronics’ materials look very promising for high-efficiency reproducible organic solar cells;” said Jef Poortmans (pictured), Program Director Solar at IMEC. “With their focus on materials, inks, and process technology for organic solar cells, we expect that our work with Plextronics will help accelerate our optimization and development of an industrial large-area process.”
Plextronics’ Andy Hannah, CEO, said that this collaboration with IMEC is an important one for the company. “Our focus is on enabling OPV commercialization with new inks and technology, and partnering with organizations like IMEC that have processing and device expertise is vital to that goal,” commented Andy Hannah, CEO, Plextronics, Inc.
In the first phase, IMEC will investigate ‘Plexcore OS,’ materials, which is a regioregular poly-3-hexylthiophene (P3HT) polymer with a high absorption coefficient close to the maximum photon flux in the solar spectrum and high mobility. These materials will be processed using spin coating and validated on film morphology, carrier mobility and reproducibility. Solar cells will be processed on different substrates using spin-coated films of the material, IMEC said.
Plextronics has already demonstrated world-record efficiencies as high as 5.9 percent, in recent testing at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
