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Towards New Generation of Solid-State Photovoltaic Cell: Harvesting Nanotubular Titania and Hybrid Chromophores

Project description

Innovative solid-state solar cell concept

Current solar cell technology fails to fulfil important criteria, including efficiency, stability, flexibility, and transparency. The ERC-funded CHROMTISOL project aims to develop a new solar cell concept with fast and loss-reduced photo-generated carriers to improve solar-to-electricity conversion efficiency. The research will focus on promising materials, the combination of which may solve current drawbacks in solar cells, such as carrier recombination and narrow light absorption. The secondary goal will include the development of techniques for infilling high-aspect ratio nanotubular TiO2 arrays with inorganic and organic chromophores. The CHROMTISOL solar cell development has the potential to outperform existing thin film photovoltaic technologies, using a combination of unique materials and their properties.

Objective

In photovoltaics (PVs), a significant scientific and technological attention has been given to technologies that have the potential to boost the solar-to-electricity conversion efficiency and to power recently unpowerable devices and objects. The research of various solar cell concepts for diversified applications (building integrated PVs, powering mobile devices) has recently resulted in many innovations. However, designs and concepts of solar cells fulfilling stringent criteria of efficiency, stability, low prize, flexibility, transparency, tunable cell size, esthetics, are still lacking.
Herein, the research focus is given to a new physical concept of a solar cell that explores extremely promising materials, yet unseen and unexplored in a joint device, whose combination may solve traditional solar cells drawbacks (carrier recombination, narrow light absorption).
It features a high surface area interface (higher than any other known PVs concept) based on ordered anodic TiO2 nanotube arrays, homogenously infilled with nanolayers of high absorption coefficient crystalline chalcogenide or organic chromophores using different techniques, yet unexplored for this purpose. After addition of supporting constituents, a solid-state solar cell with an extremely large incident area for the solar light absorption and optimized electron pathways will be created. The CHROMTISOL solar cell concept bears a large potential to outperform existing thin film photovoltaic technologies and concepts due to unique combination of materials and their complementary properties.

The project aims towards important scientific findings in highly interdisciplinary fields. Being extremely challenging and in the same time risky, it is based on feasible ideas and steps, that will result in exciting achievements.
The principal investigator, Jan Macak, has an outstanding research profile in the field of self-organized anodic nanostructures and is an experienced researcher in the photovoltaic field

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

ERC-STG - Starting Grant

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) ERC-2014-STG

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Host institution

UNIVERZITA PARDUBICE
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 644 380,00
Address
Studentska 95
532 10 Pardubice
Czechia

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Region
Česko Severovýchod Pardubický kraj
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 644 380,00

Beneficiaries (1)

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