Novel 38% Efficiency Molecular Dye Antenna Solar PV technology from Research in Würzburg Germany

Light-Harvesting Panchromatic by Supramolecular Exciton Band Engineering Heteromeric Dye Foldamer

Not just four layers of dye sensitized PV, but the novel way the layers are arranged makes the difference, improving efficiency of converting incoming light from 3% up to more than 38%, using a special way of stacking the molecular dye to radically improve broad spectral range conversion into electricity.

Measuring the quantum yield by fluorescence a novel system approach to efficiency measurement. 

A molecular antenna of an elaborate design stacks 4 different merocyanine synthetic dye molecules that enable faster efficient electron transport in the novel molecular assembly. 

"Our system has a band structure similar to that of inorganic semiconductors. This means that it absorbs light panchromatically across the entire visible range. And it uses the high absorption coefficients of organic dyes. As a result, it can absorb a great deal of light energy in a relatively thin layer, similar to natural light-harvesting systems," according to chemistry professor Frank Würthner and fellow researchers at Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg in Bavaria, Germany, publish in the journal Chem