Project description
Advanced nanowire heterostructures for innovative energy devices
Semiconductor nanowires have demonstrated exciting properties for energy technologies, offering material savings, improved conversion efficiency, and innovative products. The EU funded Nano Harvest project aims to explore innovative solutions for flexible photovoltaic and piezoelectric converters, leveraging semiconductor nanowires, with a particular focus on III-nitride semiconductors. Specifically, the project will develop nanowires with control by design functionalities, carefully engineering their structure at the nanoscale. The project’s focus will be the development of advanced nanowire heterostructures, as they are crucial for the project’s objectives. In the realm of photovoltaics, Nano Harvest will showcase an innovative concept of flexible solar cells based on polymer-embedded nanowires that are free-standing, enabling their integration with a wide range of supporting materials such as plastic.
Objective
The goal of NanoHarvest is to explore novel solutions for flexible photovoltaic and piezoelectric converters enabled by semiconductor nanowires. The first objective is to demonstrate an innovative concept of flexible solar cells based on free-standing polymer-embedded nanowires which can be applied to almost any supporting material such as plastic, metal foil or even fabrics. The second objective it to develop high-efficiency flexible and compact piezo-generators based on ordered arrays of nanowire heterostructures. The crucial ingredient - and also the common basis - of the two proposed research axes are the advanced nanowire heterostructures: we will develop nanowires with new control-by-design functionalities by engineering their structure at the nanoscale. The main focus of NanoHarvest will be on the III-nitride semiconductors, which are characterized by a strong piezoelectric response and have also demonstrated their ability for efficient photon harvesting in the blue and green parts of the solar spectrum. Our strategy is to address the physical mechanisms governing the energy conversion from the single nanowire level up to the macroscopic device level. The deep understanding gained at the nanoscale will guide the optimization of the device architecture, of the material growth and of the fabrication process. We will make use of Molecular Beam Epitaxy to achieve ultimate control over the nanowire morphology and composition and to produce control-by-design model systems for fundamental studies and for exploration of device physics. The original transfer procedure of the ordered nanowire arrays onto flexible substrates will enable lightweight flexible devices with ultimate performance, which will serve as energy harvesters for nomad applications.
Fields of science
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringcolors
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensorsoptical sensors
- natural scienceschemical sciencespolymer sciences
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectrical engineeringpiezoelectrics
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsenergy conversion
Programme(s)
Topic(s)
Funding Scheme
ERC-STG - Starting GrantHost institution
75794 Paris
France