Welcome to the Energy Frontier Research
Center for Interface Science: Solar Electric Materials

CIS:SEM is one of 46 EFRC programs created in 2009 by the U.S. DOE to focus on the basic science of new energy conversion and energy storage technologies — $15M was awarded to the University of Arizona, the lead institution for CIS:SEM, and its partners from the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Washington, Princeton University and the National Renewable Energy Laboratories (NREL) in a five-year effort.

Emerging solar electric energy conversion systems employ polymer or small molecule activelayers in thin film formats, many on flexible inexpensive substrates, produced by area-scalable printing, coating and/or vacuum deposition technologies. For some of the most sophisticated device platforms there are 10-100 critical interfaces in the final product. As set forth in the DOE Grand Challenges CIS:SEM is focused on those basic science issues that will lead to understanding and improving interfaces, as well as the development of new materials, interface characterization technologies, and device platforms.