Organic Solar Panels

Traditional solar panels are made of silicon, but silicon is expensive, difficult to manufacture and shatters like glass. Joseph Nedy (EE '09) is working with Electrical Engineering Professor Mool Gupta to find a durable, less costly replacement for silicon that is as efficient and can be made using existing microfabrication methods. They have turned to organic polymers.

Chemists at Virginia Tech produce the polymers, and Nedy, with Gupta's guidance, is researching ways to use them to fabricate higher-efficiency solar cell devices and evaluate their electrical and optical characteristics. “These organic molecules absorb more light than silicon,” Nedy says, “but they do not transport electrical charges efficiently.” To increase their efficiency, Gupta envisions coating them with carbon nanotubes.

One reason that Nedy enjoys the project is that he is helping to break new ground. “We are working in an area that is increasingly a focus of new research,” he says. He also values being part of a team. He is working with a graduate student and meets with Gupta at least once a week to report on his progress and ask questions. “Professor Gupta is very accessible,” Nedy says, “but he has high expectations.”

Nedy has the ideal qualifications for the effort: he is a materials science minor who spent a year at the Micron DRAM facility in Manassas while establishing Virginia residency. “I enjoyed my stay at Micron, but I also appreciate the freedom you have in an academic laboratory to do the experiments you like.”