CHEMABEL · Low-temperature CHEMical approaches to novel materials based on earth ABundant ELements. Towards advanced electronic and optoelectronic applications
FP7 — People (Marie Curie Actions)
- Duration
- 2014-03-01 → 2018-02-28
- EU contribution
- €100,000
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MC-CIG
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Low-temperature CHEMical approaches to novel materials based on earth ABundant ELements. Towards advanced electronic and optoelectronic applications
As main result of the project, a new SALD system has been finished and optimised and it is being heavily used to deposit functional materials based on earth abundant materials, mainly for application as transparent conductive materials or efficient coatings in optoelectronic devices. The new SALD has permitted the candidate to attract collaborations at the local, national and international levels. A second SALD system is being set up. The candidate has also filed a patent on a new solar cell architecture and has obtained a maturation project and a postdoc fellow, with funds originating from the Grenoble INO Technology Transfer Society and the Labex CEMAM. A first proof of concept of the new cell architecture has been obtained, simulations have also been performed and a suitable market for our new cell has been identified. The candidate and his team are currently working on the development of a suitable deposition process in order to harness all the potential of the new cell architecture. Following the synthesis and characterization of the new Ag-Cu-Cr oxyhydroxide (Dalton Transactions, 2017), further new Cu based oxides have been obtained by the hydrothermal approach. The new compounds are being characterized and studied. The first devices are being made with earth abundant materials and using the deposition techniques developed in the project. The candidate is the coordinator of a FET OPEN Project worth 3 M€ that is based on the SALD approach that he develops. The project involves 6 academic partners and two companies from 8 different countries and the project will start in September 2018. The objective of the project is to develop a novel technology allowing the deposition of high quality thin films with ultimate control of the crystallinity and functionality. During the grant the fellow has consolidated a research line with the corresponding team. During the project the fellow has been the main supervisor of 3 PhD students (one dedicated to objective 1 and 4, funded by the French Education and Research Ministry, and the other two dedicated to objectives 3 and 4, and funded by the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region through the ARC4 energies program and CONACYT in Mexico). The team has also hosted a visiting PhD student during one year (funded by the program AREAS+, ERASMUS MUNDUS), working in objectives 1 and 4. Several internships and master students and visiting PhD students or post-doc have also participated in the project, focussed on the different objectives. 2 postdocs have also been supervised by the fellow. Finally, through internal collaboration with other permanent staff in LMGP, the fellow has been/is co-supervisor of several PhD students and master students. During the project, 19 scientific articles have been published, while 17 invited talks and 13 seminars have been given.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The renewable energy technologies already available are not yet capable of competing with fossil fuels mainly due to a poorratio cost/efficiency. A clear example is photovoltaic energy, for which high costs and moderate performances yield too longpayback times, despite the huge amount of solar energy constantly reaching the Earth. The key to cheap and more efficientrenewable energy sources lies in the materials at the heart of the different technologies. The synthesis of novel materialswith superior tailored properties for each particular energy application, and the development of cheap and scalablefabrication protocols is therefore crucial if renewable energy technologies are to take a main share of modern society energymix. Thus I plan to focus on the synthesis and study of novel materials based on earth abundant elements, with tailoredproperties for application in photovoltaic cells and other electronic devices, such as transparent electronics. On a complementary research line, the design of simpler and more efficient cell (nano)architectures is another key factor in maximizing the efficiency/cost ration of solar cells. In this sense I intend to develop novel nanoarchitectures in which the two main processes in solar cells, namely light abslorption and charge extraction, are decoupled and thus can be separately tackled and optimized. I want to address these goals by using and developing facile, low-cost and scalable approaches. Thehydrothermal method has proven to be a very effective synthetic approach yielding both known and new phases. Moreover,it is a low cost method and easily scalable. I have also shown the efficiency of hydrothermal reactions for the fabrication ofhybrid nanostructures. Additionally, other low-cost, solution-based methods will be explored (electrochemistry, chemicaloxidation, etc). Finally, an exciting new approach to Atomic Layer Deposition that operates at atmospheric pressure will bedeveloped and implemented.""
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS · ParisCoordinatorFrance
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union