A team from Cambridge University and Cambridge Display Technology Ltd. of Cambridge, UK, and from Max Planck Institut fur Polymerforschung Ackermannweg of Mainz, Germany, has created organic photovoltaic cells by mixing liquid crystal with perylene dye. Although only as efficient as other organic solar cells, the simplicity and economy of their construction may lead to mass production.

Reporting the work in the Aug. 10 issue of Science, the researchers describe how hexa-peri-hexabenzocoronene and perylene dye form thin-film structures when spin-coated on silicon wafers. The films display a maximum external quantum efficiency of approximately 34 percent near 490 nm and a power efficiency of 2 percent.