NCKU-RCETS, Tainan | May 24, 2012 | Photos and article by: Paramita Asri
Dr. Seth Darling is a Scientist and the Solar Energy Strategy Leader at Argonne National Laboratory. After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in Physical Chemistry, he joined Argonne as the Glenn Seaborg Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow in the Materials Science Division where he studied directed self-assembly of polymers and polymer/nanoparticle hybrid systems. Following his postdoc, Dr. Darling joined the Center for Nanoscale Materials at Argonne as staff scientist. His group's research focuses on polymer molecular engineering with a particular emphasis on organic photovoltaics. Dr. Darling has published approximately 50 papers, many of which have been featured on journal covers. As the Solar Energy Strategy Leader, he interfaces with a spectrum of internal scientists, engineers, and managers as well as external domestic and international stakeholders in industry, government, museums and foundations, national laboratories, market analysis firms, academia, and the media.
On May 23 and 24, 2012, Dr. Seth Darling visited the Research Center for Energy Technology and Strategy (RCETS) at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) to further discuss the collaboration on Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs) and Organic Photovoltaics (OPVs) between Argonne and NCKU. As a matter of fact, this was not Dr. Darling's first visit to NCKU. In November 2011, he was invited to the International Symposium on Energy Technology and Strategy (ISETS) held by RCETS as a keynote speaker. Following the international symposium, Dr. Darling and his team further explored potential collaboration between Argonne and Taiwan. In early May, NCKU and Argonne have collaborated to submit a preproposal for the National Science Council (NSC) call for establishing International Research-intensive Center of Excellence (I-RiCE). In this I-RiCE Project, Argonne and NCKU have agreed and proposed an I-RiCE Center entitled "Research Center for Next-Generation Solar Cells." On the other hand, this project also involved experts from National Taiwan University, National Tsing Hua University and Academia Sinica. In total, this project involved 20 domestic researchers and 15 researchers from Argonne.
The first day of Dr. Darling's visit mainly focused on the elaborated discussions on DSSCs and OPVs. The meetings mainly discussed the research focus of NCKU faculty and their on-going projects related to DSSCs and OPVs. Dr. Darling also shared the current progress and focus of DSSCs and OPVs related research in Argonne. It is expected that such a meeting would build more solid understanding between Argonne and NCKU so that both parties can carry on further to explore potential collaborations in other projects in the future.
Traditionally, the ideal morphology for organic photovltaic (OPV) active layers is viewed as a bicontinuous network of pure donors and acceptors with a periodicity comparable to the exciton diffusion length. Many groups, including our own, have sought approaches to achieve such a structure through techniques such as self-assembly. We have recently found that the active layer of high-performance OPV devices, in fact, involves hierarchical nanomorphologies ranging from several nanometers to hundreds of nanometers in size. These hierarchical nanomorphologies are coupled to significantly enhanced exciton dissociation indicating that the nanostructural characteristics at multiple length scales is one of the key factors determining the performance of polymer:fullerene systems. We are now applying this knowledge to develop a new understanding of what morphology might be ideal in OPVs as a route to improving the performance of these next-generation devices.
After the lecture, Dr. Seth Darling was guided by Prof. Hsi-Hseng Teng, Prof. Yuh-Lang Lee, Prof. Jih-Jen Wu, Prof. Tzung-Fang Guo, and Prof. Chao-Yu Chen to their laboratories located in the Department of Chemical Engineering in Tzu-Chiang Campus and the Department of Photonics in Cheng Kung Campus.