CEI Seminar Jean-Luc Bredas Organic solar cells: Characterization of interfacial charge-separation and charge-recombination processes

Organic solar cells: Characterization of interfacial charge-separation and charge-recombination processes

In this presentation, we will first recall the working principles of organic solar cells and rationalize the need for the presence of both an electron-donor component (usually a conjugated polymer or oligomer) and an electron-acceptor component (often a fullerene derivative).
We will then discuss the impact that inter-molecular arrangements and interactions at the donor/acceptor (polymer/fullerene) interfaces have on the performance of bulk-heterojunction solar cells. We will describe the results of combined electronic-structure calculations and molecular-dynamics simulations.

About the Speaker

Jean-Luc Bredas received Ph.D. from the University of Namur, Belgium, in 1979. In 1988, he was appointed Professor at the University of Mons, Belgium, where he established the Laboratory for Chemistry of Novel Materials. While keeping an “Extraordinary Professorship” appointment in Mons, he joined the University of Arizona in 1999 before moving in 2003 to the Georgia Institute of Technology. At Georgia Tech, he is Regents’ Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and holds the Vasser-Woolley and Georgia Research Alliance Chair in Molecular Design. Jean-Luc Bredas is a Member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science, the Royal Academy of Belgium, and the European Academy of Sciences. He is the recipient of the 1997 Francqui Prize, the 2000 Quinquennial Prize of the Belgian National Science Foundation, the 2001 Italgas Prize, the 2003 Descartes Prize of the European Union, the 2010 Charles H. Stone Award of the American Chemical Society, the 2013 David Adler Award in Materials Physics of the American Physical Society, and the 2016 Award in the Chemistry of Materials of the American Chemical Society. He is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society (Inaugural Class), American Physical Society, Optical Society of America, Royal Society of Chemistry, and Materials Research Society (Inaugural Class), and an Honorary Professor of the Institute of Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He holds honorary degrees from the University of Linköping, Sweden, and the Free University of Brussels. He has published over 1,000 refereed articles (that have garnered nearly 70,000 citations, leading to a current Web of Science h-index of 120) and given over 500 invited presentations. Since 2008, he has served as Editor for “Chemistry of Materials”, published by the American Chemical Society. The research interests of his group focus on the computational characterization and design of novel organic materials of relevance for organic electronics and photonics applications.