Dr. Jan Meiß awarded UMSICHT science award for work on organic solar cells

July 11, 2012

Dresden, Germany -- On July 4th, 2012, scientist Dr. Jan Meiß was awarded the UMSICHT Science Award 2012 for his thesis "New Material Concepts for Organic Solar Cells."

Kellie Chadwick

Dresden, Germany -- On July 4th, 2012, scientist Dr. Jan Meiß was awarded the UMSICHT Science Award 2012 for his thesis "New Material Concepts for Organic Solar Cells." Professor Dr. Dietrich Grönemeyer, Chief Executive of the Science Forum Ruhr eV, presented the award as a patron of the Friends of the UMSICHT for the third time in Oberhausen.

In his doctoral thesis at the Institute of Applied Photo Physics (IAPP) of the Technical University of Dresden, Meiß, jointly with the Fraunhofer COMEDD Heliatek, developed new concepts for organic solar cells. The 31-year-old dealt specifically with transparent electrical contacts and the improvement of their efficiency. He developed resource-saving, inexpensive and easily workable alternatives to conventional conductive contact layers by replacing indium tin oxide by a nanolayer of silver and aluminum. The special feature: it could produce such layers with transparent solar cells that were approximately four times more efficient than conventional transparent organic cells.

Organic solar cells can be easily integrated into portable systems and can be placed mobile devices like cell phones or laptops. They are very easy to install, as they are applied to plastic films. Therefore, it is also conceivable for the solar cells to be integrated in large areas, such as car roofs or facades. Due to the simple manufacturing process and materials used in these carbon-based solar cells, they are much cheaper than conventional solar cells.

The work of Jan Meiß was funded by the BMBF on the project "Organic pin devices" under the grant number 03IP602. The TU Dresden and the Fraunhofer COMEDD have been established for the research of novel organic devices.

The Friends of the UMSICHT science prize award shall facilitate dialogue between science and society on current topics in the areas of environment, safety, and energy technology. Industry-and market-oriented research and journalistic contributions from these areas have been awarded a total of 15,000 €.

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