Modeling the morphology evolution of organic solar cells

Authors

  • Kai Bergermann Technische Universität Chemnitz

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14464/gammas.v1i1.419

Keywords:

organic solar cells, mathematical modeling, Flory-Huggins theory, Cahn-Hilliard equation, FEniCS

Abstract

Organic solar cells present a promising alternative for the generation of solar energy at lower material and production costs compared to widely used silicon-based solar cells. The major drawback of organic solar cells currently is a lower rate of energy conversion. Thus many research projects aim to improve the achievable efficiency. In this work a phase field model is used to mathematically describe the morphology evolution of the active layer composed of polymer as electron-donor and fullerene as electron-acceptor. The derivation of a chemical potential term and a surface energy term for the polymer-fullerene solution using the Flory-Huggins theory forms the basis to employ the Cahn-Hilliard equation. After including several specifics of the application in this non-linear partial differential equation of fourth order, an implementation of the model using the FEM solver software FEniCS provides some simulation results that qualitatively match results from the literature.

Author Biography

Kai Bergermann, Technische Universität Chemnitz

Bachelor in Mathematics at University of Freiburg
Master student in Industrial Mathematics at TU Chemnitz
Research interests include mathematical modeling, diffuse interface methods, and machine learning.

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Published

2019-10-10

How to Cite

Bergermann, K. (2019). Modeling the morphology evolution of organic solar cells. GAMM Archive for Students, 1(1), 18–27. https://doi.org/10.14464/gammas.v1i1.419

Issue

Section

Research Articles