Self-Assembly of Organic Liquid Crystalline Semiconductors


Organic photovoltaic devices are poised to fill the low-cost niche in the solar cell market and have a potential option of being produced in the form of flexible films. However, power conversion efficiencies for organic materials remain low (~8%). In collaboration with NREL, we employ self-organization of organic molecules into ordered columnar discotic and lamellar phases in the effort to improve charge carrier mobility and efficiency of the organic PVs. This becomes possible only now, after recent advances in understanding of fundamental phenomena in organic photovoltaic materials and those associated with self-assembled structures of molecular alignment in nano-confined liquid crystals.