Singlet Fission and Solar Energy Conversion

Josef Michl

Department of Chemistry, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA

          The production of two triplet excitons from a singlet exciton in organic solids, known as singlet fission, promises to improve the theoretical efficiency limit of inexpensive solar cells from the Shockley-Queisser limit of about 1/3 to nearly 1/2. The reason it is not currently in use is the dearth of suitable materials. A dozen or so organic solids are known to perform singlet fission efficiently, but hardly any of them are sturdy enough for practical use. This situation represents an interesting challenge to a quantum chemist. The lecture will describe a systematic search for suitable chromophores and for ways to optimize their packing in the solid, both of which are critical for performance.

          Josef Michl received his Ph.D. in 1965 with R. Zahradník in Prague. He left Czechoslovakia in 1968, did postdoctoral work with R. S. Becker, M. J. S. Dewar, J. Linderberg, and with F. E. Harris, and started his independent career at the University of Utah. In 1986 he accepted the Collie-Welch Chair at the University of Texas at Austin and in 1991 moved to the University of Colorado at Boulder. Since 2006, he has also had an appointment at the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and President of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Sciences. He was editor-in-chief of Chemical Reviews from 1984-2014. He has co-authored five books on photochemistry and polarization spectroscopy, and over 650 papers in the areas of organic, inorganic, theoretical, and physical chemistry.

"Fundación Ramón Areces
Vitruvio, 5. 28006 Madrid
Tel. 91 515 89 80
Simultaneous interpretation
Free assistance
Limited capacity"