News

Progress in Photovoltaics and Nanotechnology:

from FP7 to Horizon 2020.

The EU PV Clusters

2nd Workshop and General Assembly

Venue: Aula Magna, University of Barcelona, Spain

26th - 28th November 2013

Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC)

EU PV logo

www.eupvclusters.eu

The second EU PV Clusters Workshop and General Assembly will take place in Barcelona (Spain) in November 2013, hosted by SCALENANO, a European project co-funded by the NMP and ENERGY Programmes under the EU 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7). The Workshop intends to build on the success of the first Workshop (held at Aix-les Bains (France) in October 2010) to:

Identify, in a value-chain approach, common research and innovation priorities for bridging the gap between nanotechnoly-based knowledge produced by the projects in FP7 and the successful commercialisation of products enabled by these developments.
Give an updated overview of the portfolio of projects in the photovoltaics (PV) field at the final stage of FP7 to bring forward the global picture of PV research and innovation in Europe and highlight the impact of nanotechnology in this area.
Enable the nanotechnology and PV communities in Europe to consolidate joint collaboration areas for strategic industrial partnerships to give key recommendations on future research and innovation needs in the PV domain.
Review the existing nanotechnology and PV industrial roadmaps for the development of PV in Europe, to implement them in Horizon 2020, the EU new Framework Programme for Research and Innovation 2014-2020.

The Workshop can be attended upon invitation only and there is no attendance fee.

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Ionic Liquids: Applications in the Chemical-, Electro- and Bio- Sciences

Douglas R. MacFarlane

Australian Centre for Electromaterials Science

Monash University,

Victoria, Australia

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July 24th, 2013

15h00m

Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC)

Venue: sala d’actes

Ionic liquids are simply organic salts that have melting point below 100°C. As liquid salts they offer a range of solvency properties distinctly different from normal molecular solvents. In addition to this, they are often very stable - thermally, chemically and electrochemically. They have thus found application in a wide variety of contexts from green chemistry to medicinal chemistry, electrochemistry and more recently in the biochemical and biosciences.

By way of example, recent work has shown that many medicinally active compounds can be ionic liquids when combined with an appropriate counter-ion, opening up a huge range of new, and in some cases dual-active, pharmaceuticals. They can also be used as novel stabilising solvents for proteins, the stability of the protein being much enhanced both with respect to thermal denaturation and also chemical degradation. They have been shown to be very useful in the electro-deposition of metals and semiconductors, including water-splitting catalysts, and as electrolyte solvents for batteries and solar cells. Their electrochemical and thermal properties have led to the development of applications in corrosion protection and in lubrication. Certain selected examples are excellent solvents for biopolymers such as cellulose and lignin.

This talk will survey these fields and discuss future directions emerging in this fascinating new area of chemistry.

Selected references:

1) Stoimenovski, J.; MacFarlane, D. R.; Bica, K.; Rogers, R. D., Crystalline vs. Ionic Liquid Salt Forms of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients: A Position Paper. Pharm. Res. 2010, 27, 521-526.

2) Ionic liquid materials for the electrochemical challenges of the future M. Armand, F. Endres D. R. MacFarlane, H. Ohno, B. Scrosati, Nature Materials, 2009, 8, 621-62.

Jornada de conversió d'energia

Venue: Sala d'actes de L'IREC

ORGANIZAZER: Xarxa de Referència en Materials Avançats per l'Energia

Date: 19^th July 2013

Conference Program

The Functional Nanomaterials Group invites you to the seminar:

"Searching for oxide thermoelectrics: Ru pyrochlores, datamining, and beyond"

Tuesday, July 9th, 2013

11:30 am

Sala d'Actes de la Universitat de Barcelona

Michael W. Gaultois

Materials Research Laboratory,
University of California, Santa Barbara, CA (USA)

I describe the creation of a large database of thermoelectric materials prepared by abstracting information from over 100 publications. The database has over 18 000 data points from multiple classes of compounds, whose relevant properties have been measured at several temperatures. Appropriate visualization of the data immediately allows certain insights to be gained with regard to the property space of plausible thermoelectric materials. Of particular note is that any candidate material needs to display an electrical resistivity value that is close to 1 mΩ cm at 300 K, that is, samples should be significantly more conductive than the Mott minimum metallic conductivity. The Herfindahl–Hirschman index, a commonly accepted measure of market concentration, has been calculated from geological data (known elemental reserves) and geopolitical data (elemental production) for much of the periodic table. The visualization strategy employed here allows rapid sorting of thermoelectric compositions with respect to important issues of elemental scarcity and supply risk

“Nuevos diseños de termogeneradores para nuevos mercados comerciales:

aspectos térmicos y comerciales”.