Researchers ID Thousands of Organic Materials for Use in Solar Cells

Using computers to virtually test new molecules could lead to new types of solar cells.

Using donated computing power and drawing on the theory of quantum mechanics, Harvard researchers have computationally screened 2.3 million organic molecules for properties relevant to photovoltaic applications and then organized them into a searchable, sortable database. The new library, which was released to the public today, will help guide the search for new organic photovoltaic materials.