​KSC Seminar: Charge Transfer Processes in Donor-Acceptor Systems for Photovoltaic Applications

Speaker: Prof. Frédéric Laquai

KAUST Solar Center

Date & Time: Monday January 22nd, 2018 at 3pm

Venue: Auditorium between Buildings 4&5

Light refreshments will be provided

Abstract: In this seminar I will present our recent progress in understanding efficiency-limiting processes in organic bulk heterojunction solar cells that use conventional fullerene molecules, novel nonfullerene acceptors, or n-type polymers to separate excitons, transport charges, and generate photocurrent. Specifically, I will demonstrate how steady-state and time-resolved optical and electro-optical spectroscopy techniques can help to unravel fundamental photophysical processes that ultimately limit the photocurrent, open-circuit voltage, and determine the fill factor of photovoltaic devices. When discussing some of our recent case studies, I will try to point out similarities and differences between the investigated material systems, identify some of the open questions that remain to be addressed, demonstrate which tools we have available to address these questions, and discuss where we, despite the progress made, still struggle to answer them.  

Biography: Frédéric Laquai graduated with a diploma in Chemistry from the University of Marburg, Germany in 2003 and received a doctoral degree in Physical Chemistry from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPIP) and the University of Mainz in 2006. Afterwards, he spent two years as a Research Fellow in the group of Professor Sir Richard Friend at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge (UK), where he studied ultrafast energy and charge transfer processes in organic semiconductors. In 2008 he returned to the MPIP in Mainz and led the Organic Optoelectronics group until he became ‘Associate Professor of Material Science and Engineering’ at KAUST in early 2015. ​​​His group studies the photophysical processes that limit the efficiency of photovoltaic devices including organic, inorganic, perovskite, and hybrid PV materials by employing various steady-state and time-resolved optical and electro-optical spectroscopy techniques