Dr. Livia Noemi Glanzmann

Other

Email

livia [dot] glanzmann [at] gmail [dot] com

Country

Switzerland

Research Information

Research Overview

Within the European Union's Seventh framework project POCAONTAS (Polymer Carbon Nanotubes Active Systems for Solar Cells) we carry out theoretical investigations on the working principles of organic solar cells, including photon absorption, exciton diffusion, exciton/polaron separation, and charge carrier transport. The aim of the project is to develop new photo active materials composed of polymer-carbon nanotubes heterojunctions. Single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) are promising candidates for photovoltaic (PV) active layers due their one-dimensional closed structure. The tubing gives rise to special physical properties not provided by other conjugated carbon hydrogen systems. The different chiralities and diameters with defined band gaps allow simple fitting of the energy levels within the cell, the huge surface area facilitates the exciton dissociation, and the tube length enables high carrier mobility.

To obtain high on/off current ratios, enriched semiconducting SWCNT solutions not containing metallic SWCNT are favorable. Solubilizers are found to selectively disperse SWCNTs. The copolymer of 9,9-di- octylfluorenyl-2,7-diyl and bipyridine (PFO-BPy) delivers dispersions containing 97% (6,5)-SWCNT. We are modeling the PFO-BPy-(6,5)-SWCNT hybrid system to gain information about the geometries and interactions. In collaboration with experimentalists (University of Wuerzburg and Técnico Lisboa) we are investigating the selective behavior of the polymer after adding some modifications. We hope to find explanations for the selective adsorption of the polymer on the chiral (6,5)-SWCNT.

Independent experiments reporting an increase in device efficiencies by adding carbon nanotubes to different heterojunctions. Still, the working principle is not well understood. We hope to provide new insights by modeling the P3HT:carbon nanotube heterojunction. Especially, we are focused on time propagation in charge density distribution after perturbation by an external field and charge separation probabilities. We want to use or implement new calculation methods to investigate the excited state properties of the system. Additionally we want to simulate experimental results obtained from time-resolved spectroscopy performed at the instituto italiano di tecnologia in Milan. The collected results should give a better understanding of photovoltaic working principles to support the device construction of new efficient organic solar cells.

POCAONTAS. Polymer/Carbon Nanotube Active Systems
http://nano-bio.ehu.es/project/pocaontas-polymer-carbon-nanotubes-active...
http://pocaontas-network.eu/
Poster http://nano-bio.ehu.es/files/poster_psik.pdf

Supervisors:

Duncan J. Mowbray
Angel Rubio

Research Collaborations:

- Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg
- Técnico Lisboa
- Instituto italiano di tecnologia Milano
- IMDEA

Related Research Areas

• Extended systems: solids, surfaces, liquids. Applications (e.g photovoltaics)

Latest publications

Theoretical Insight into the Internal Quantum Efficiencies of Polymer/C₆₀ and Polymer/SWNT Photovoltaic Devices

Livia Noemi Glanzmann, Duncan John Mowbray
Journal Of Physical Chemistry C 120, 6336 - 6343 (2016)

Photoinduced Absorption within Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Systems

Livia Noemi Glanzmann, Duncan John Mowbray, Diana Gisell Figueroa del Valle, Francesco Scotognella, Guglielmo Lanzani, Angel Rubio
Journal Of Physical Chemistry C 120, 1926 - 1935 (2015)

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