Most light- and solar-powered devices currently rely on a give-and-take system consisting of two materials. One hands off the electrons and the other receives them. This is the heterojunction previously believed necessary for organic solar cells to function.

But a new study by researchers at the University of Cambridge has proven otherwise after discovering that a radical (a special type of molecule) can do the full job on its own.

The material the team used, P3TTM, is a stable organic radical. When the molecules are hit with light, they divide into pairs of negative and positive charges, like separating two magnets. The surprising thing is the charges don’t immediately snap back together but rather remain separated long enough to be harvested for electricity.

Results showed the thin films, made only of P3TTM, successfully and almost perfectly pulled charges apart — no second material required.

In organic electronics, this has been unreachable for decades.

The implications of this are substantial, paving the way for less complicated solar panels and light-harvesting devices, new types of sensors and more flexible and less costly materials in organic electronics.

The study was published in Nature Materials.

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