Exploiting 5-Fullerene-Metallo-yne Chemistry for Fabrication of New Photovoltaic Materials

This is a seed project proposal involving three key areas: (i) design and development of new metallo-ynes and oligo-ynes, (ii) use of metallo-yne as the link between harvester and sink and (iii) developing alternative light harvesting entities. Overall, the proposal concerns establishing the protocol through which the three components of photovoltaic devices can be assembled and evaluated. The ultimate goal is to enhance the efficiency of the light-to-electricity conversion. Structures of the component functional molecules as well as the final target compounds will be determined so that structure-property correlations can be ascertained. Electrochemistry of these molecules will enable the assessment of the extent of electronic communication between the harvester and the sink.