Descripción del proyecto
Los componentes híbridos piezoeléctricos y fotovoltaicos allanan el camino hacia la miniaturización de los dispositivos del internet de las cosas
Los avances en materiales y las tecnologías de procesamiento han permitido el desarrollo de componentes electrónicos cada vez más pequeños. Sin embargo, a medida que esas piezas se encogen y cada vez se acercan más entre sí, surge el desafío de la interferencia entre ellas. El equipo del proyecto UNIFY, financiado con fondos europeos, abordará este problema unificando dos componentes fundamentales pero contradictorios, los piezoeléctricos y fotovoltaicos, en un único material fotoferroeléctrico. Los piezoeléctricos convierten la energía cinética en eléctrica, mientras que los fotovoltaicos transforman la óptica en eléctrica. La sustitución de varios componentes por uno solo podría revolucionar la conversión de la energía mecánica y solar en energía eléctrica para aplicaciones como el internet de las cosas que requieren el diseño de dispositivos conectados en productos cada vez más pequeños y con una vida útil más prolongada.
Objetivo
The piezoelectric (PE) effect is the core electromechanical coupling function widely used in sensors, actuators and transducers for various industrial sectors. The photovoltaic (PV) effect produces green electricity from the solar energy. To date, materials showing strong PE and efficient PV properties are separate families of oxide perovskites and narrow band gap semiconductors, respectively. This project aims to unify these PE and PV performances by making new photoferroelectric materials. Photoferroelectrics can be both ferroelectric and photovoltaic. However, several challenges hinder them from being practically used as single, integrated PE-PV materials: (i) Not all good ferroelectrics show strong PE responses; (ii) The strong piezoelectrics have wide band gaps, unable to absorb visible lights; (iii) The photovoltaic energy conversion efficiencies (PCE) of photoferroelectrics are far below those of semiconductor solar cells. To address the challenges, this project will (1) start with the oxide perovskite compositions showing the record PE properties. These compositions will be engineered by doping to reduce the band gaps and thus to absorb the entire visible lights whilst maintaining the original PE properties. (2) The engineered compositions will be grown to single crystals to further boost the PE properties and to form stacked domain walls. (3) The stacked domain walls will generate photovoltages that can add up domain by domain, producing an ultra high net photovoltage in the material. (4) The efficient photocurrent generation in the domain walls will be boosted by the complete light absorption resulted from the single crystal thickness equal to the light penetration depth, pushing the PCE to the level of semiconductor solar cells. The results are expected to trigger revolutions in mechano-solar-electric multi-energy converters for emerging applications such as Internet of Things that require long lifespan and miniaturization.
Ámbito científico
- natural sciencesphysical scienceselectromagnetism and electronicssemiconductivity
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectrical engineeringpiezoelectrics
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsenergy conversion
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsrenewable energysolar energyphotovoltaic
Programa(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Régimen de financiación
HORIZON-AG - HORIZON Action Grant Budget-BasedInstitución de acogida
90014 Oulu
Finlandia