Symposium EN04-Next-Generation Organic Photovoltaics—Fundamentals and Applications for Flexible, Stretchable and Wearable Devices

Next-generation thin-film photovoltaic devices are drawing significant attention as off-grid power sources for next-generation wearable electronics, such as biosensors, electronic skins, and displays. Among them, organic photovoltaics (OPVs)-based flexible photovoltaic platforms can be seamlessly integrated to any devices while supplying efficient light harvesting owing to their unique features of high power-per-weight output and their excellent mechanical robustness. Indeed, in the last few decades, significant advancements have been achieved in OPVs, which exhibit power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of up to 18% for single-junction cells via optimization of photovoltaic donor/acceptor (D/A) materials (especially developing non-fullerene (NF) acceptors), device architectures, and D/A blend morphologies. As a result, we are witnessing advances in flexible and even stretchable organic solar cells as energy sources for state-of-the-art devices.

Despite the surprising progress in OPVs, achieving such high efficiency and reasonable mechanical robustness simultaneously for wearable devices is still considered a grand challenge. Challenges to overcome include material designs, fabrication processes, novel device structures, and performance characterization under diverse harsh circumstances.

This symposium welcomes a collection of abstracts that highlight these major challenges in the state-of-the-art novel organic material designs, device structures for enhancing mechanical stability, and fabrication processes on plastic substrates. The symposium will be open to various researchers focusing on materials and devices for flexible and wearable electronics and their applications, including biosensors, e-skins, and system-level integrations.

Topics will include:

Synthesis of new organic (and polymeric) photovoltaic materials
Device fabrication and photovoltaic characteristics
Fundamentals for charge generation, transport, recombination and extraction
Photovoltaic applications for flexible, stretchable and wearable devices
Mechanical properties and device stability
Film morphology control and characterization
Device dynamics by transient absorption and time-resolved spectroscopy
Theoretical modeling and calculation of photovoltaic materials and characteristics

Invited Speakers:

Natalie Banerji (University of Bern, Switzerland)
Melanie Bertrand (Armor, France)
Jean Luc Bredas (The University of Arizona, USA)
Dong Hoon Choi (Korea University, Republic of Korea)
Xugang Guo (Southern University of Science and Technology, China)
Bumjoon Kim (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea)
Mario Leclerc (Université Laval, Canada)
Kwanghee Lee (Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea)
Pooi See Lee (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)
Dongling Ma (Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Canada)
Thuc-Quyen Nguyen (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)
Brendan O`Connor (North Carolina State University, USA)
Jean-Rémi Pouliot (Brilliant Matters, Canada)
Erin Ratcliff (University of Arizona, USA)
Safa Shoaee (University of Potsdam, Germany)
Keisuke Tajima (RIKEN, Japan)
Wei You (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA)
Yingping Zou (Central South University, China)