UA Scientists Are Developing 'Self-Assembling' Solar Cells

Photovoltaics - the high-tech approach to converting sunlight directly into electricity - could be low cost and widely practical if based on organic "self-assembling" thin film technologies, say scientists at the University of Arizona.

UA chemists and optical scientists have been funded by two separate new grants totaling more than $1 million to develop organic molecules that "self assemble," or self-organize, from liquid into efficient solar cell coatings.

Neal R. Armstrong, Bernard Kippelen, David O'Brien, Seth Marder and Jean-Luc Br