This symposium invites contributions on new approaches to enhance the performance and stability of organic solar cells (OPV), as well as highlight the novel areas of application. It will consider challenges in synthesis of novel types of non-fullerene acceptor and matching donor molecules to afford simultaneous high efficiency, long lifetime and low environmental impact at a low cost of sysnthesis. At the same time it will provide new insights on the advanced machine learning concepts for optimization and upscaling of these devices, and highlight arising new OPV application areas, such as indoor light cells, agrivoltaics, integrated IOT solutions and more.
- Development of novel highly efficient organic solar cells molecules
- Stability of organic solar cells
- Upscaling of organic solar cell devices
- Novel application areas for organic solar cells
Vida Engmann obtained her Dr. rer. nat in 2014 from the Ilmenau University of Technology under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Gerhard Gobsch. In 2014 she joined the OPV group at Mads Clausen Institute of University of Southern Denmark as a postdoctoral researcher. In 2017 she was appointed assistant professor and in 2020 as associate professor, with the focus on degradation and additive-assisted stabilization of organic solar cells. Her international research stays include Uppsala University, University of Colorado Boulder / NREL, and Russian Academy of Sciences Chernogolovka. In 2019 she received the Danish UNESCO-L'Oréal For Women in Science award and in 2020 the UNESCO L'Oréal International Rising Talent award.
Morten Madsen, Professor wsr at the University of Southern Denmark, SDU NanoSYD.
My field of expertise is thin-film growth, integration and devices for energy conversion and storage applications. In 2010-2011, I worked with high performance transistors from III-V nanoscale membranes at the Javey research lab, UC Berkeley, California. In 2011, I established the OPV group at SDU NanoSYD, where we work on improving the performance and stability of organic and hybrid solar cells, including thin film synthesis, metal oxide interlayers and interfaces, organic and hybrid active layers as well as film and device degradation. Since 2016, we also have a focus on device up-scaling through Roll-to-Roll (R2R) printing technology at the SDU R2R facility. Vist out site for more details:
https://www.sdu.dk/en/om_sdu/institutter_centre/c_nanosyd/forskningsomrader/organic+solar+cells
Throughout his career, Jens has worked with successfully designing and developing complex experiments for in situ structural studies in the fields of polymer solar cells and functional organic materials, catalysis and hydrogen storage using synchrotron radiation, in fact since the beginning of his PhD studies. From 2001-2010 his focus was mainly on synchrotron radiation scattering techniques and their use for in situ experiments and for determining structure-property relations in functional thin films.
In 2011, Jens shifted his focus towards synchrotron-based 3D imaging of energy materials, particularly the very demanding case of polymer solar cells, where the low-contrast soft matter constitute a specific challenge. Through a dedicated effort of synchrotron experiments this led from 3D ptychographic imaging of roll to roll coated polymer solar cell active layers to 3D imaging of a complete polymer tandem solar cell. The scope of applications is all the time broadening, and Jens is now developing new tools for 3D imaging and organizing training and teaching in these.
In the same period, he developed a new setup for fast mapping of nano-structure, crystallinity and texture in R2R coated thin-films, which is still being improved and extended. Most recently, he has taken up research in ultrafast X-ray scattering and spectroscopy applied to solar energy materials, using X-ray free electron lasers.
In parallel with the studies of nano-structure in energy materials, Jens is running a small group that works with upscaling of organic solar cells, in order to maintain research into the entire development of this technology, from the fundamental understanding of charge generation and transport, over mesoscale structure formation to the performance of the final devices.
Christoph J. Brabec is holding the chair “materials for electronics and energy technology (i-MEET)” at the materials science of the Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg. Further, he is the scientific director of the Erlangen division of the Bavarian research institute for renewable energy (ZAE Bayern, Erlangen).
He received his PhD (1995) in physical chemistry from Linz university, joined the group of Prof Alan Heeger at UCSB for a sabbatical, and continued to work on all aspects of organic semiconductor spectroscopy as assistant professor at Linz university with Prof. Serdar Sariciftci. He joined the SIEMENS research labs as project leader for organic semiconductor devices in 2001 and joined Konarka in 2004, where he was holding the position of the CTO before joining university.
He is author and co-author of more than 150 papers and 200 patents and patent applications, and finished his habilitation in physical chemistry in 2003.
René Janssen is university professor at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). He received his Ph.D. in 1987 from the TU/e for a thesis on electron spin resonance and quantum chemical calculations of organic radicals in single crystals. He was lecturer at the TU/e since 1984, and a senior lecturer in physical organic chemistry since 1991. In 1993 and 1994 he joined the group of Professor Alan J. Heeger (Nobel laureate in 2000) at the University of California Santa Barbara as associate researcher to work on the photophysical properties of conjugated polymers. Presently the research of his group focuses on functional conjugated molecules and macromolecules as well as hybrid semiconductor materials that may find application in advanced technological applications. The synthesis of new materials is combined with time-resolved optical spectroscopy, electrochemistry, morphological characterization and the preparation of prototype devices to accomplish these goals. René Janssen has co-authored more than 600 scientific papers. He is co-recipient of the René Descartes Prize from the European Commission for outstanding collaborative research, and received the Research Prize of The Royal Institute of Engineers and in The Netherlands for his work. In 2015 René Janssen was awarded with the Spinoza Prize of The Dutch Research Council.
Zhe LiProfessor of Materials Physics at Karlstad University, Sweden, since 2011. Research interests: morphology of conjugated polymer thin films, photodegradation of OPV materials, energy level allignment in organic and perovskite multilayer structures. Employed at Karlstad university since 2000. Previously Research Scientist at Cambridge Display Technology in Cambridge,UK, and Research Assistant at University of Cambridge. Post-doc at EPFL Lausanne (1996-98) and TU Delft (1995-1996). PhD degree from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel.
Jenny Nelson is a Professor of Physics at Imperial College London, where she has researched novel varieties of material for use in solar cells since 1989. Her current research is focussed on understanding the properties of molecular semiconductor materials and their application to organic solar cells. This work combines fundamental electrical, spectroscopic and structural studies of molecular electronic materials with numerical modelling and device studies, with the aim of optimising the performance of plastic solar cells. She has published around 200 articles in peer reviewed journals, several book chapters and a book on the physics of solar cells.
Thuc-Quyen Nguyen is a professor in the Center for Polymers and Organic Solids and the Chemistry & Biochemistry Department at University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). She received her Ph.D. degree in physical chemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2001 under the supervision of Professor Benjamin Schwartz. Her thesis focused on photophysics of conducting polymers. She was a research associate in the Department of Chemistry and the Nanocenter at Columbia University working with Professors Louis Brus and Colin Nuckolls on molecular self-assembly, nanoscale characterization and molecular electronics. She also spent time at IBM Research Center at T. J. Watson (Yorktown Heights, NY) working with Richard Martel and Phaedon Avouris. Her current research interests are structure-function-property relationships in organic semiconductors, sustainable semiconductors, doping in organic semiconductors, interfaces in optoelectronic devices, bioelectronics, and device physics of OPVs, photodetectors, and electrochemical transistors. Recognition for her research includes 2005 Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, 2006 NSF CAREER Award, 2007 Harold Plous Award, 2008 Camille Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award, the 2009 Alfred Sloan Research Fellows, 2010 National Science Foundation American Competitiveness and Innovation Fellows, 2015 Alexander von Humboldt Senior Research Award, 2016 Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, 2015-2019 World’s Most InfluentialScientific Minds; Top 1% Highly Cited Researchers in Materials Science by Thomson Reuters and Clarivate Analytics, 2019 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 2023 Wilhelm Exner Medal from Austria, 2023 Fellow of the US National Academy of Inventors, 2023 de Gennes Prize in Materials Chemistry from the Royal Society of Chemistry, 2023 Elected Member of the US National Academy of Engineering, 2024 Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences, and 2025 ACS Henry H. Storch Award in Energy Chemistry.