Research Activities

Nanostructured thin films for new photovoltaic “all Si” solar cells

Silicon nanocrystals embedded in a dielectric matrix behave as quantum dots (QD) when they have very small dimensions (< 10 nm in diameter): they can be used to engineer structures whose band gaps are finely tunable by adjusting the nanocrystals size. Such structures have been proposed to be employed in “all-Si” tandem cells, composed by several solar cells of different band gaps stacked on top of one another, with the highest band gap cell uppermost: each cell absorbs a slice of the solar spectrum, with below band gap photons passing through to underlying cells.

Aim of the work is to design modified Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSCs) with increased solar energy-to-current conversion efficiency, by exploring innovative modification of the original DSC structure devised by M. Graetzel at the beginning of the ‘90s.

The strategy followed to obtain this goal is to propose modifications regarding both the oxide substrate and the sensitizing layer of the cell aiming at increasing electron collection and transport while decreasing the recombination processes. The polycrystalline TiO2 layer will be substituted with (i) an ordered array of ZnO nanowires, (ii) a nano-network composed of ZnO nanowires covered with polycrystalline TiO2 (core-shell nanowires) or (iii) a nano-network composed by polycrystalline TiO2 and carbon nanotubes (CNTs).

The main goal of this project is the development of an artificial device capable of splitting water to produce hydrogen at ambient temperature.

As shown in the figure, the device will consist of three main parts:

The main goals of this Work package can be summarized as follows:

Electrode materials preparation for both batteries and supercapacitors;
Polymer electrolyte membranes preparation for both batteries and supercapacitors;
Cathode Electrolyte Assembly (CEA) and Anode Electrolyte Assembly (AEA) testing and integration in a complete Li-ion thin cell battery;
Preparation of an inkjet printed flexible polymeric cell;
Electrochemical double layer supercapacitors preparation with both standard technology and inkjet printing.