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Research in polymer-based solar cells has long held the promise of cheap deployments of solar arrays harvesting energy at efficiencies reaching that of the standard silicon solar cells. Beijing-based researches Yongfang Li and Yingping Zou have recently done an exhaustive investigation into various modifications of electrically functional polymers, with results that are a significant improvement of the existing state of the art. To understand the importance of this achievement, it's worthwhile exploring all the barriers to organic solar materials.

Getting conducting and semi-conducting properties out of polymers can be tricky business. Add in the requirement that they absorb photons in the visible spectrum and the problem becomes significantly more complex. Existing electrically conductive polymers are conjugated chains (alternating single bonds and double bonds between the carbon backbone of the polymer) which lend themselves to giving up an electron and allowing conduction. These generally have a high band gap (the energy needed to excite an electron into the conduction band), meaning that it would take high energy photons, past the UV spectrum, to get any electrical activity. 

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