Polymeric Solar Cells: Materials, Design, Manufacture offers a comprehensive treatment of nonhybrid polymeric solar cells from the basic chemistry of donor and acceptor materials through device design, processing and manufacture.

Written by a team of Europe-based experts, the text shows the steps and strategies of successfully moving from the science of solar cells to commercial device production.

Chapters focus on technologies that lead to increased efficiencies, longer usable life and lower costs. Highlighted are ways to fabricate solar cells from a range of polymers and develop them into marketable commodities. Special consideration is given to solar cells as intellectual property.

Features:

• Polymer solar cells from design to devices, 1G to 3G
• Technical strategies for improved photoconversion and lifetimes
• Scale-up and manufacture of different types of organic photovoltaics (OPV)

Contents

1. Introduction

• Solar Energy
• Types of Solar Cells
• Organic Solar Cells
• Device Architecture and Operational Mechanism
• Current State of the Art and Challenges of OPVs

2. Materials and Processing

• Substrate and Front Electrode
• The First Intermediate Layer
• The Active Layer
• The Second Intermediate Layer
• The Back Electrode
• Encapsulation
• Different Device Architectures

3. Stability and Characterization of Devices

• Degradation and Stability of Polymer Solar Cells
• Characterization of OPVs
• Measuring and Reporting a Device's Operational Stability

4. Manufacture

• Upscaling of Polymer-solar-cell Processing
• The Solar-cell Geometry and the Process
• R2R Manufacture of Polymer Solar Cells

5. Market Analysis

• The OPV Environment
• OPV Technology Field Review
• The Market for OPV

6. Demonstration as a Technology Development Tool

• Demonstration of the OPV Technology
• Risø DTU Demonstration—Solar Hat
• Risø DTU Demonstration—Grid-connected OPV
• Risø DTU Demonstration—Suntiles, the Modern Green Curtain
• Risø DTU Demonstration—Lighting Africa, the OPV-based Solar Lamp
• Technological Characteristics of Solar Hat and Solar Lamp
• Roundup of Risø DTU Demonstrations
• Konarka Demonstrations

7. Patent Overview of OPVs

• The Patent Field
• What Is Intellectual Property?
• Who Administrates Intellectual Property?
• Patent Protection
• The Typical Life of a Patent
• The First Filing
• The PCT Application
• National and Regional Phase
• Regionalization before the European Patent Organization
• Publication of the Patent Application and the Granted Patent
• Information on the Front Page of a Patent Publication
• OPV Patent Analysis
• Central Composition of Matter OPV Patents
• OPV Patent Survey in the European Union

8. Technology Potential and Outlook

Index

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