Just about every manner of nanoparticle and nanomaterial has been applied to polymer solar cells. Despite all of this work, conversion efficiencies for single p-n junction polymer solar cells are mired at around 9 percent, while cells with more than one p-n junction have mustered efficiencies only as high as 10.6 percent.
All those frustrated efforts made it reasonable to wonder whether nanoparticles would ever provide much of a boost to polymer solar cells.
Now, an X-ray study performed at the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) by a team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) using DESY’s synchrotron radiation source, PETRA III, has demonstrated that magnetic nanoparticles can improve the performance of polymer solar cells—if the mix is right.