nanosolar-research-focus

Next generation electrochromic glazing

  • energy savings in heating and cooling of buildings
  • transparent conductive metallic micro-/nanomesh electrodes,
  • durable all-solid-state electrochromic devices
  • short switching times, color neutrality
  • rapid, energy-efficient control of visible transmittance and solar heat gains.

 

Optical microstructures for daylight management

  • low-cost alternative to electrochromic windows
  • high solar heat gains in winter, low solar heat gains in summer
  • daylight redirection in the depth of the office room
  • glare protection
  • clear vision through the window pane.

 

Nanocomposite selective solar absorber coatings

  • high stability at elevated temperatures in vacuum and in air
  • generation of industrial process heat with concentrated solar radiation
  • detailed understanding of electronic and structural properties
  • cost-effective method for the production of selective absorber coatings on receiver tubes
  • innovative and patented induction heating process.

 

Thermochromic materials

  • overheating protection of solar thermal systems
  • reversible metal-to-insulator transition (MIT) of vanadium oxide-based materials
  • precise determination of the complex relative permittivity r of thermochromic vanadium dioxide films in the mid-infrared range (MIR) for both semiconducting and metallic states
  • increase of the thermochromic phase transition temperature up to ≈ 96°C by Ge doping of VO2 films
  • decrease in αsol accompanied by an increase in Δth for increasing temperature achieved for the first time

 

Metal-to-insulator-transition in microelectronics

  • development of a multitude of VO2 based microelectronic devices, including Peano reconfigurable inductors, reconfigurable split ring resonator microwave filters, RF tunable phase shifters, tunable planar waveguide filters, Van der Waals MoS2/VO2 heterostructures for tunable rectifiers, photodiodes and field effect transistors, phase-change steep-slope and tunnel field-effect transistors
  • novel scheme for data storage and processing which could outperform conventional metal-oxide-semiconductor electronics in terms of speed, energy consumption and miniaturization, as well as provide a route to neuromorphic computation and multilevel memories

 

Novel materials for fuel cells

  • novel platinum-free catalysts for hydroxide exchange membrane fuel cells (HEMFC)
  • reactively sputtered oxide films show promising performance as conductive anti-corrosion coatings for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC)