Project description
Improved understanding of exciton dynamics could lead to higher-performance photoactive materials
Artificial photosynthesis could make a decisive contribution to the renewable energy source mix. Although technological advances have brought scientists closer to developing efficient light-harvesting platforms, the atomic-scale mechanisms remain poorly known. Despite great research efforts, there are still important questions unanswered because the extremely short-lived excited states, so-called excitons, are difficult to measure. The EU-funded WEPOF project will develop advanced microscopy methods to observe these excited states generated by light in covalent organic framework materials. Improved understanding of the excitonic processes will guide the design of photoactive materials with enhanced energy conversion efficiency.
Objective
One of the most urgent challenges our society is facing nowadays is the development of an energy economy based on renewable resources. A fascinating approach is artificial photosynthesis, where solar energy is exploited to produce chemical fuels out of carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight.
While recent technological advances are bringing us closer to the goal of developing efficient light-harvesting platforms, a fundamental gap about the atomic-scale mechanisms remains to be filled. Understanding the atomistic details of the processes involved is of tremendous importance to drive a rational design of photoactive materials. Relevant questions include: how do electrical charges move upon light absorption? How does the atomic structure influence the ability to harvest light? Why do some materials work better than others? Answering to questions as these represents an extraordinary demanding task, since excitons, the most fundamental light-induced excitations, composed of bound electron-hole pairs, are only transient short-lived entities occurring in complex materials.
The WEPOF project aims at enabling the direct experimental observation of excitons in photoactive covalent organic frameworks, providing a fundamental understanding of photoexcited states in energy materials. While the structural complexity of organic frameworks will be tackled by individuating elementary functional units, allowing rationalizing their structure-function relations, the development of unique scanning probe microscopy methods will enable to watch excitons on their relevant length- and timescales.
The understanding of excitonic processes will allow steering the design of photoactive materials with improved energy conversion efficiency, providing a conceptual framework for next-generation material platforms for artificial photosynthesis.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Topic(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-AG - HORIZON Action Grant Budget-BasedHost institution
6020 Innsbruck
Austria