PolySolar SIGNED

Project "PolySolar" data sheet

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 Partnership

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 Project objective

π-Conjugated semiconducting organic polymers have gained a widespread interest for their potential application in the fabrication of organic electronic devices. Efficiency of these devices largely depends on the ability of the polymeric film to transport charge; thus attempts are being made to enhance the charge mobility by improving crystallization, aggregation and orientation of the material during the pre-processing. Dip coating, spin coating, doctor blading and thermal annealing techniques are being used for the development of oriented microstructures, however, these techniques are not practicable on a large scale. However, microfluidics is an emerging multidisciplinary field with practical applications in lab-on-a-chip technology. It deals with the precise control, behaviour and manipulation of fluids. It has widely been used for the controlled nucleation and crystallization of small conjugated materials. The aim of this project is to synthesize new soluble conjugated organic polymers by simple solution polycondensation method. The monomers and the resulting polymeric material will be characterized by using the standard techniques. New microchannel system will be designed and fabricated by using polymer, glass or thermoplastics. The polymer solutions will be pre-processed (under optimized conditions like temperature, flow rate or magnetic field) by micro-fluid technique for precise manipulation of crystallization, aggregation and orientation in the solution form. Effect of the variable flow rate, solvent systems and temperatures will be studied. The processed solution will be then spin coated to fabricate prototype dye sensitized solar cell. Atomic force Microscopy, Grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering, UV visible spectroscopy will used to investigate the aggregation and formation of clusters. Electrical measurements, namely current-voltage (I-V) will be carried out to study the transport properties and cell parameters of the device.