Harvesting solar energy using conjugated metal-containing polymers

While the oil and energy prices quickly increase over the world, it is becoming important to find alternative forms of renewable energy sources. Harvesting energy directly from sunlight using photovoltaic technology is being increasingly recognized as part of the solution to the growing energy challenge. Inorganic materials typically exhibit higher solar power conversion efficiencies than their organic counterparts, but the use of inorganic solar cells remains limited due to the high costs of fabrication procedures. Low-band gap conjugated polymers are emerging as promising materials for the development of organic solar cells because of the improved absorption of the solar photon flux. This chapter discusses recent progress in the development of conjugated polymers containing transition metals. Such investigation calls for a highly topical research area with new insights and conceptual breakthroughs in the development of useful and processable photovoltaic polymeric materials that will definitely fill that niche. The future prospects of this research area are also highlighted.