Mathematical Modeling and Analysis of Organic Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells

Abstract

This thesis deals with mathematical modeling and analysis of organic bulk-heterojunction solar cells with a view to capturing the donor/acceptor morphology within a computationally efficient modelling framework. This is achieved through the development of the spatially-smoothed device model that bridges the micro- and macro-scale descriptions of charge carrier generation, transport and recombination in organic solar cells. The spatially-smoothed model extends conventional effective-medium models by additionally considering the essential features of exciton transport, as well as more information pertaining to the underlying morphology in the form of effective transport properties, volume fractions, and the specific interfacial area. In establishing this new modeling framework, we have contributed to the quantitative understanding of structure-property relationships in organic solar cells, particularly in terms of closed-form mathematical relations.