Every hour enough energy arrives at the surface of the earth from the sun to meet humanity’s energy requirements for a year. The challenge is to harvest even a small proportion of this energy in an economically viable and sustainable way. Recent technological innovations in conjunction with changes in the global energy landscape have dramatically increased demand for photovoltaic technologies. The unique selling point of photovoltaics is their ability to silently convert sunlight directly into electricity without any moving parts or emissions, making them ideally suited for integration into the fabric of buildings. Whilst today’s PV technologies jostle for market share in this burgeoning sector the next generation are poised to disrupt the party in the near future.

One critical determinant of both the operational performance and cost of organic PV is the window electrode, which must efficiently couple light into the device and extract current to the external circuit. The Hatton group is focused on understanding the science that underpins the operation of the transparent electrode in organic PVs and the development of new electrodes and materials for this application. This work is inherently cross-cutting and interdisciplinary spanning new materials development through to device fabrication and characterisation. Our work also has numerous potential applications beyond organic photovoltaics which we are open to exploring with interested parties.

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