Broad Spectrum Light Absorbing Polymers for PhotovoltaicsQiquan Qiao, Center for Advanced Materials, Department of Electrical Engineering, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD 57006; Collaborator: Seth Darling, Argonne National Laboratory We also studied the planarity of the newly designed polymers via DFT calculation. A high degree of planarity was found in these polymers, which was expected to lead to a high possibility of packing and carrier mobility. In addition, an efficient delocalization throughout the backbone chain was observed in the LUMO orbitlas. The UV-VIS-NIR absorption spectra showing the polymer has a very efficient light harvesting capability because its absorption spectrum matches the solar spectrum very well. The absorption was obtained from DFT based quantum chemical calculation.