Efficient organic bulk heterojunction solar cells through near infrared absorbing metallated thiophene complexes

Recently novel metallo-organic (MO) complexes have been synthesized by the Chisholm group at Ohio State, leading to the potential for a MO complex:fullerene bulk heterojuction solar cell that overcomes the limitations of current polymer:fullerene BHJ solar cell by expanding the usable solar spectrum into the near infrared. These metallated oligimers provide for high absorption at longer wavelengths of solar energy and with very long lifetimes of created electrons for high collection efficiency, leading to a potential efficiency enhancement over conventional organic solar cells. However, many fundamental issues dealing with processability and optimum device topology need to be addressed for this new chemistry system to move from the Chemistry lab to a viable device platform. In this work, prerequisites and preliminary findings of MO complexes for efficient photovoltaic operation are mainly discussed.