This project aims to contribute to obtaining safe, efficient and clean energy through the development of efficient lighting sources, which reduce the consumption of electrical energy, and efficient solar cells, which generate electrical energy. The development of both types of devices is based on the use of organic semiconductor materials (molecular and/or polymeric) and materials of hybrid organic/inorganic nature (perovskites). The optical and electrical properties will be modulated by modifying, through chemical synthesis, the structure of the molecules or polymers that make up the material, and, in the case of perovskites, by varying the composition and morphology of the material. Our main objective is the theoretical/experimental design and characterization of new electroactive materials, their processing into thin films and their integration into energy-saving light-emitting electroluminescent devices and energy-generating solar cells.
The PROMETEO excellence project will approach the following goals:
1) Design and characterization of electroluminescent materials of ionic character
Identification of ionic transition-metal complexes, mainly derived from Ir(III) and Cu(I), and perovskite-type materials with high luminescence quantum yields, with the design of stable and efficient blue light-emitting materials being a priority
2) Development of efficient white light emitting devices
Implementation of the materials in efficient light-emitting devices, paying special attention to the development of perovskite films that emit blue light and their integration in devices that emit white light. Multilayer devices with more than one light-emitting layer are needed for white light emission. The ionic nature of the materials facilitates their processing from solution or by vacuum evaporation (perovskites).
3) Investigation of new organic semiconductors as hole- and electron-transporting materials
Characterization, by quantum-chemical calculations and experimental measurements, of the structural (supramolecular organization), electronic and optical properties of organic semiconductor materials used as electron donors/acceptors and charge carriers in photovoltaic cells.
4) Preparation of multi-junction perovskite solar cells with efficiencies greater than 30%
Development of tandem solar cells with efficiencies greater than 30% from perovskite sub-cells that absorb light in the red (~ 1.8 eV) and infrared (~ 1.2 eV) range, by optimizing the composition and morphology of the perovskite films and achieving a good alignment of the energy levels of the electron/hole-carrying organic layers.