Spin-enhanced organic bulk heterojunction photovoltaic solar cells

Ye Zhang, Tek P. Basel, Bhoj R. Gautam, Xiaomei Yang, Debra J. Mascaro, Feng Liu, Z. Valy Vardeny

http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v3/n9/full/ncomms2057.html

Authors report that introduction of 3 wt% galvinoxyl radical into the bulk heterojunction blend of donor and acceptors (P3HT and PCBM, respectively) for photovoltaics enhances their efficiency by 18%.  This enhancement is proposed to arise from galvinoxyl-induced conversion of singlet polaron pairs to longer-lived triplet state.