Principal Investigator: Mariano Campoy-Quiles

The global demand for cold-chain logistics is surging, driven by changing consumer lifestyles, government legislations to reduce waste and rapid diversification of supply chains. The pressure is particularly felt in the pharmaceutical and medical industries, where many life-saving products such as vaccines, peptides, blood and plasma explicitly require shipping and handling at specific temperatures. The use of time-temperature indicators to provide visual cues for undesirable exposure to elevated temperatures offers the means for cold-chain verification. However, the existing food market indicators cannot fully address the specific challenges posed by the pharmaceutical industry, such as:

i) Small size and flexible form factors;
ii) Low cost for item-level applications and distribution in low-income countries;
iii) Operation at ultra-low temperatures from –20 down to –70 °C for mRNA vaccines.

The ambition of VERITASCAN is to advance a new class of time-temperature indicators, drawing on emerging ‘smart packaging’ concepts and harnessing recent breakthroughs in scalable micro-processing of organic semiconductors realised within my group. Specifically, my team will deliver versatile indicators design based on patterned organic semiconductor films that are erasable on-demand by selection of molecular ‘solvents’. We will optimize the temperature range and accumulative exposure monitoring, as well as validate the commercial viability of the technology via comprehensive field-tests with our industrial partners.
My interim objective is to establish a sustainable value creation model in the market. The long-term goal of VERITASCAN is to introduce transformative user-centred technology that addresses urgent societal needs.

More information here.

Principal Investigators:  J. Sebastián Reparaz

Principal Investigators: Sergi Riera-Galindo

The current energy and climate crisis requires the more widespread use of renewable energy. Photovoltaic is an excellent method to supply energy needs with clean and renewable energy from the city. Typically, photovoltaic modules have been installed on large areas of land, or in small installations on the roofs of buildings. It is essential to find new spaces where you can install modules photovoltaic to be able to power electronic devices autonomously, which are essential to create smart cities, such as environmental sensors or devices luminous. However, commercially available photovoltaic modules are difficult to integrate into urban architecture due to its rigidity, opacity or for aesthetic reasons. In recent years, the efficiency of emerging photovoltaic technologies has increased significantly, which has implied its initial commercialization. Among these technologies, organic photovoltaics stands out for its low cost due to its ease of production and the materials used, its flexibility, and the ease to adjust the color and transparency of the photovoltaic modules. Furthermore, the optical properties of organic materials make organic photovoltaics maintain high efficiency with incident light diffuse, which is ideal for urban environments, where sunlight often cannot hit directly.
These characteristics make organic photovoltaics an ideal technology for integration into buildings and urban furniture. In this project, photovoltaic modules will be manufactured with organic materials in from printing methods. Specific combinatorial screening techniques will be used to to accelerate the selection of optimal materials both in efficiency and stability. Also, as proof concept, a model of a bus stop canopy will be created in which a module will be integrated photovoltaic which will power LED lighting. This project is an example for future decisions, green and ambitious policies to address climate change.

More information here.

Sergi Riera receiving the grant awarded | Ajuntament de Barcelona

Principal Investigator: Mariano Campoy-Quiles

The aim of SYNATRA is to revolutionise the field of agrivoltaics by integrating transparent organic photovoltaic modules with tailored light absorption into agricultural structures to stimulate a synergistic co-production of energy and plants.

The SYNATRA consortium, led by Eurecat through its Functional Printing and Embedded Systems Unit, is formed by 6 partner organizations, including four research institutes [Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), Institute of Cellular and Molecular Biology of Plants (IBMCP-CSIC, UPV), Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA)], one technology centre (Eurecat) and one spin-off SME (VITSOLC).

The green energy transition challenge to move global energy production away from fossil fuels requires innovative, renewable, and cost-effective energy technologies. Most of the current utility-scale renewable energy infrastructures are deployed over large areas in remote regions, which entail major impact on the landscape, imply a large distance gap between power generation and consumption, and compete with agricultural land uses. At the same time, the energy demand of intensive agriculture keeps raising with the automation of crop management systems and the increasing deployment of high-tech greenhouses. The emerging field of agrivoltaics aims at providing solutions to combine both types of production -solar photovoltaic power generation and agriculture- on the same land, by capturing most of the solar energy and mitigating ecosystem impacts. However, the use of conventional opaque c-Si photovoltaic modules in agrivoltaics is fundamentally limited by its direct competition for light utilisation with plant growth, as well as the in homogeneous shadowing effects detrimental for homogeneous crop growth. From an ecotoxicological perspective, agrivoltaics must avoid the use of alternative thin film photovoltaic technologies that contain toxic (Pb-based perovskites, CdTe) or scarce elements (CIGS). In contrast, organic photovoltaics (OPV) have emerged as an incipient player in the photovoltaic industry, with a set of unique properties that position it as a key technology to address some of the challenges associated with the green energy transition. Some of the main differentiators of this environmentally friendly, thin film photovoltaic technology include a great absorption tunability, that enables colour and transparency engineering, and a seamless integration onto any shape and surface. These features cannot be otherwise delivered by conventional Si-based photovoltaic panels and, hence, are key characteristics for target applications where high transparency or high integrability are imperative. Semi-transparent OPVs (ST-OPVs) are gaining due attention in the market of building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV), as they are best suited for power-generating windows or façades, as well as in greenhouse applications.

The customisation of ST-OPV for specific agrivoltaic applications will attempt to provide the optimum conditions for plant growth: controlled light intensity, light diffusion and light composition (spectrum), homogeneous coverage of crop areas and mechanical protection against aggressive elements such as hail, wind, or rain.

The SYNATRA project already catched the attention of spanish press media. Specially, Mariano Campoy was interviewed at RNE. The interview to Prof. Mariano Campoy-Quiles in the program “Las tardes de RNE con Carles Mesa” can be found here from minute 33. Other important Spanish scientific media had also commented the project. More information, as well as a compilation of all the press, can be found at ICMAB webpage.

Proyecto PLEC2022-009323 financiado por MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 y por la Unión Europea NextGenerationEU/PRTR

Principal Investigators: Alejandro R. Goñi and Mariano Campoy-Quiles

This project aims at developing a proof-of-concept device consisting in a spectrum-on-demand light source, called SOLS. It is essentially a spectral shaper illumination device, providing a tunable, spectrally shaped, focused and spectrally split beam, modulated in intensity and/or in a wavelength range with respect to a primary light source. The main goal of the SOLS-PV project is to provide a novel illumination device, highly automatic, that can be used to perform many of the standard photovoltaic tests within one piece of equipment, and thus will help to accelerate material screening, enabling the discovery and optimization of novel multi-component materials for the emergent PV technologies like organic PV, metal halide perovskites PV, all oxides PV, etc. Apart from being capable to produce almost any spectrum on demand, a differentiating innovation of the SOLS light source regarding the current state of the art is that it can deliver two types of outputs:

1) A beam spatially and spectrally split in its wavelength components; a unique capability for illuminating lateral tandem (rainbow) solar cells. To the best of our knowledge, there is no other light source capable of addressing the full characterization (global and of the individual components) of multi-junction solar cells.

2) A spatially and spectrally homogeneous beam of large cross section for homogeneous areal illumination for PV materials characterization. Another unique feature of the SOLS setup is that it allows two characterization devices to be merged into one: A solar simulator for the determination of the power conversion efficiency and an external quantum efficiency (EQE) measuring system. The materials science community would very much profit from counting with a spectral shaping illumination device like the SOLS system for a speedy and exhaustive materials screening and characterization.

In June 2023, the SOLS instrument won the EmErgEnt Award from the Efficient Energy Cluster in Catalunya (Clúster de l’Energia Eficient de Catalunya, CEEC) in the “Llavor” category. For the group of people behind SOLS, the most important aspect of winning this award is the recognition of the innovation potential of the idea and for all the effort and work associated with the project. It is also worth mentioning that this award has contributed to gaining visibility and exposure for the SOLS project, what gives us more credibility and reputation when looking for potential partners/interested companies/investors…

More information on the award can be found here and on ICMAB’s webpage.

More information on the SOLS patented instrument here.

Principal Investigators: Alejandro R. Goñi and Agustín Mihi

PLASMOCRACO2 is an innovative proposal addressing the Grand Challenge of the mitigation of the greenhouse effects caused by massive CO2 emissions. The main goal is the development of a novel technology forthe sustainable capture of CO2 and its catalytic conversion into chemicals of industrial interest. PLASMOCRACO2 is unique inthe following terms: The photocatalytic conversion of CO2 will be accomplished in electrochemical cells sel powered from solar energy through the generation of hot electrons which are injected into the gas molecules driving the CO2 reduction reactions. The hot electrons result from sunlight photoexcitation of plasmons at a nanostructured metalic cathode, serving as catalyst. The plasmonic nanostructure will be engraved onto an organic, CO2-permeable membrane, leading to the formation of a gas-iquid-solid, three-phase reaction interface. The membrane also propities a preset ordering in the reaction processes (gas transport, reduction by hot electrons and ions transport), boosting overall conversion eficiency. The main groundbreaking objectives are: To understand the fundamental processes triggered by hot-electron injection atthe three-phase reaction interface and to design and test a plasmon-driven photo-catalytc convertor, serving as demonstrator. PLASMOCRACO2 would thus yield substantial fundamental knowledge regarding photocatalytic CO2 conversion and, simultaneously, provide exploltable results for immediate applications, contributing to the EU Green Deal.

Principal Investigators: Agustín Mihi and Carlota Ruiz de Galarreta

Optical metasurfaces and nanophotonics are offering a promising route towards the realisation of compact and lightweight optical components for engineering the amplitude, phase and polarisation of light, which could replace current conventional bulky optics in a near future. Yet, today the realisation of metasurfaces is based on precise but time-consuming and energy-inefficient nanofabrication techniques: conditions which are beyond the capabilities of the majority of industrial entities. Funded by the 2021 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the METASCALE project (euMetascale) will focus on exploring the potential and limitations of laser processing techniques towards  the fabrication of high performance optical metasurfaces designed to operate in different spectral regimes. Such processes will be compatible with large-scale, cost-effective and green manufacturing routines, thus highly appropriate for current industrial environments.

​The project started in September 2023, and will be carried out under the supervision of Prof. Agustin Mihi at the Institute of Materials Science (Barcelona) the Spanish National Research Council (ICMAB-CSIC),  with the support from Prof. C. David Wright  from the host institution for secondments (Centre for Metamaterials Research and Innovation, Exeter, UK). 

More information here.

Principal Investigators: Mariano Campoy-Quiles and Alejandro R. Goñi

A much larger contribution from renewables is required in the Spanish energy mix in order to meet the ambitious targets set by the government to help mitigating climate change effects, as well as to ensure our future energy security. ISOSCELLES aims at contributing to this challenge in two directions: on the one hand, by increasing the efficiency of photovoltaic (PV) technologies based on emerging materials (mainly organic semiconductors); on the other hand, by enhancing the versatility of the technology making it more deployable (i.e. PV optimized on demand depending on the final application). The starting hypothesis is the idea that organic photovoltaics (OPV) do not unleash their full potential due to a compromise between the optical properties and limited charge carrier mobilities. If this compromise can be overcome, more efficient and versatile devices will be available. Therefore, ISOSCELLES proposes two strategies to go beyond this compromise. The first one explores the concept of what is the suitable light spectrum that would lead to the highest possible efficiency for a given absorber. Answering this question can lead to ultra-efficient indoor PV in which emitter and harvester are spectrally matched.
Moreover, it can lead also to highly efficient lateral tandem cells (aka spectral splitting geometry). For the latter, rather than splitting the solar spectrum above/below a given wavelength, we propose to give each cell the best possible spectrum that optimizes the total efficiency. The second proposed strategy by ISOSCELLES is based on the realization that increasing the temperature improves charge transport in organic semiconductors, and thus OPVs operating at mild temperatures (ca 75 ºC) can have higher efficiencies. In this sense, we want to establish the design rules to select materials for hot-OPV operation, as well as provide structures based on IR absorbers and plasmonic resonators that lead to self-heating of the OPVs. Overall, ISOSCELLES is expected to generate significant fundamental knowledge and technology to enhance the efficiency in OPVs, as well as a platform for the development of à-la-carte photovoltaics.

Principal Investigators: Mariano Campoy-Quiles and Sergi Riera-Galindo

The researcher Dr. Sergi Riera-Galindo apply for a fellowship to address effIcient anD stablE orgAnic photovoLtaics (IDEAL) by combinatorial screening. This fellowship will be carried out in the NANOPTO group of Institute of Material Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC) under the supervision of Prof. Mariano Campoy-Quiles.
Organic photovoltaics (OPV) are a promising emerging renewable energy technology due to several attractive traits, including the possibility to broadly tune colour and transparency, light weight, insensitivity to the angle of illumination, and very high efficiency under low and indoor illumination. Moreover, their amenability for solution processing at low thermal budgets enables the roll-to-roll (R2R) fabrication of OPV modules, ensuring cost-efficient production in terms of energy and economics. Nowadays, the most important challenge is to transfer the large potential of OPV from lab scale to industry and improving its stability.
The overall objective of IDEAL is the development of highly efficient and stable OPV modules for diffuse light applications such as building integration and powering of internet of things (IoT) sensors.
In this project we will use high throughput fabrication methodology using combinatorial screening to evaluate the performance of a material system much faster than the conventional methods. The big data produced will be analysed by machine learning algorithms to predict the full photocurrent versus composition curves from vary basic molecular descriptors and to determine which are the most important parameters that define the best compromise between efficiency and stability.
The expertise of the researcher on fabrication organic electronic devices by solution processed techniques will be combined with the host group experience in combinatorial screening methodology and the use of machine learning in OPV. This project will be instrumental for the researcher to become a cutting-edge scientist and create his own group.

More information here.

Principal Investigators: Mariano Campoy-Quiles

HORATES is short for Hybrid and Organic Thermoelectric Systems. We are an international doctoral programme in materials science and funded by the European Union with about 4 million euros. The programme focuses on the development of organic materials suitable for converting unused waste heat into electricity. Within HORATES, 15 young scientists conduct research on this topic and work on their PhD projects. Our consortium includes universities, research centres, and companies in Germany, Italy, Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands and France.

Waste heat from technical devices and even heat given off by living beings is a ubiquitous source of energy and can be harnessed to produce electricity. One possible application is powering small sensors. “We intend to use a mechanism known as the thermoelectric effect to convert the energy, whereby a difference in temperature can be transformed into electrical energy,” says Prof. Dr. Martijn Kemerink of Heidelberg University, Germany, who is the coordinator and spokesperson for HORATES. Until now, inorganic materials have been used for converting and storing energy. The international PhD programme will concentrate on developing organic materials, whose greater mechanical flexibility and low thermal conductivity make them potentially more efficient performers than conventional inorganic materials.

The current state of technology in organic thermoelectrics is not yet far enough for market-ready applications. “For thermoelectric generators, we will explore the properties and processing of newly developed organic materials and then use them in demonstrator devices.” The doctoral candidates work through the full chain of organic thermoelectrics, from molecular design and chemical synthesis to device development, including theoretical modelling. The structured programme for 15 doctoral candidates is organised under the auspices of an innovative training network with scientific and practical experts serving as advisors. Funding is provided within the framework of Horizon 2020, the research and innovation programme of the European Union.

More information here.

Principal Investigators:  Alejandro Goñi, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Principal Investigators: Mariano Campoy-Quiles

Following promising early breakthroughs, progress in the development of high-performance multicomponent organic energy materials has stalled due to a bottleneck in device optimization. FOREMAT will develop a breakthrough technology to overcome this bottleneck by shifting from fabrication-intense to measurement-intense assessment methods, enabling rapid multi-parameter optimization of novel systems. Our goal is to deliver organic material systems with a step-change in performance, bringing them close to the expected market turn point, including panchromatic organic photovoltaics with ca 15% efficiencies and thermoelectric devices that could revolutionize waste heat recovery by their flexibility, lightweight and high power factor. The development of multicomponent materials promises to dramatically improve the cost, efficiency and stability of organic energy devices. For example, they allow to engineer broad-band absorption in photovoltaics matched to the sun’s spectrum, or to create composites that conduct electricity like metals while thermally insulate like cotton yielding thermoelectric devices beyond the state-of-the-art.

Despite these advantages, the long time required to evaluate promising organic multinaries currently limits their development. We will circumvent this problem by developing a high-throughput technology that will allow evaluation times up to two orders of magnitude faster saving, at the same time, around 90% of material. To meet these ambitious goals, we will advance novel fabrication tools and create samples bearing a high density of information arising from 2-dimensional gradual variations in relevant parameters that will be sequentially tested with increasing resolution in order to determine optimum values with high precision. This quantitative step will enable a disruptive qualitative change as in depth multidimensional studies will lead to design rationales for multicomponent systems with step-change performance in energy applications.

More information about FOREMAT

• Additional explanation for the case of high throughput evaluation of materials for photovoltaics can be found in the following press realease (Spanish)

and in the following 9 minutes video (English)

• Video of the full explanation of fabrication of organic solar cells with thickness gradients

Principal Investigators: M. Isabel Alonso

ELASTIC is a joint project within ICMAB-CSIC and the National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU) in Taiwan. The 1st-year joint project focuses on the fabrication and evaluation of self-assembled germanium (Ge) quantum dots (QDs) within self-organized Si-containing matrices (SiO2 and Si3N4) using thermal oxidation of poly-SiGe nanopillars, being produced by unconventional nanofabrication techniques (nanoimprinting by ICMAB) and original (electron-beam lighthographic patterning by NYCU) processes. The so-formed Ge QDs feature process-controlled size tunability, allowing us to probe size-dependent strain, optical bandgap energy for Ge QDs and even effects of quantum confinement and interface scattering on effective dielectric constant, absorption and reflectance of the Ge QDs/Si3N4 systems which are fundamental parameters for advancing the photonic device design and thus, for both photonic and thermal transport applications. Following extensive online discussion, both groups have defined/designed together the Ge-QDs samples that need to be fabricated in terms of lattice parameters (120 nm–400 nm) and QD sizes (50 nm–75 nm) as well as the spectroscopic characterizations in terms of Raman, ellipsometry, photoluminescence, and thermal conductivity.

The Bilateral Programme aims to stimulate, through its own funding, collaboration between CSIC research groups and research groups from various foreign institutions with which a collaboration agreement has been signed. The expected impact of the programme is to improve the internationalisation of the CSIC through the consolidation of stable scientific cooperation links between CSIC teams and teams belonging to institutions based in the aforementioned countries, by means of work and specialisation stays for research groups from these institutions.

Principal Investigators: Mariano Campoy-Quiles and David B. Amabilino

The ecological transition requires ways to capture energy that are efficient, stable and renewable. Among all the available technologies that will help reach this goal, organic photovoltaic devices (OPVs) are a range of cells that complement others that are based on silicon or other materials. Their advantages are unique: They are made from Earth abundant, environmentally responsible, have very short energy payback times, and are extremely efficient in low intensity light. Although OPVs have been made with energetic efficiencies close to those of other types of devices, there are important challenges for them to be viable in an environmental and commercial sense, such as their stability that has a direct influence on their sustainability. The overarching objective of this interdisciplinary project is the rapid discovery of highly sustainable, efficient and stable organic photovoltaic solar cells. To do that, we will use combinatorial interface screening with the deployment of functional additives. All the studies will intrinsically employ the principles of green chemistry. The combinatorial screening will be performed exploiting protocols developed by members of the research team. Broadening the measuring techniques will allow the simultaneous study of efficiency and stability in OPVs made of materials with gradients of composition of the electron donors and acceptors and of the thickness of the film. In parallel, a library of synthetic functional additives will be prepared that are designed to both stabilise the interfaces in the devices as well as favour the transport of electrons across them, facilitating charge separation, a key step in the function of the cells. The true success of the project will be the application of the combinatorial approach to the discovery of optimal composition of donor and acceptor of electrons with specific functional additives for each interface in the devices, so that optimal systems in efficiency and stability can be uncovered that will be useful for commercial OPVs that can be used in the ecological transition. The study of the optimal compositions made separately will lead to an understanding of the structure and charge separation processes and will permit the preparation of large-scale devices with optimal stability, efficiency and sustainability. The impact will be more widely appreciated beyond the present project through application of the combinatorial approach to additives, in an analogous way to the discovery of drugs and optimal combinations of them. Presently, additive screening is done in a somewhat random way without being able to design the systems from first principles.

Starting in December 2022, the present project will allow functional additives to be used and that their final composition is discovered in the most ecological and rapid manner.

Principal Investigator: M. Isabel Alonso

The aim of the call is to promote the activities of the Catalan research groups in order to strengthen the scientific, economic and social impact of the research, as well as to promote its international projection.

The Nanostructured Materials for Optoelectronics and Energy Harvesting (NANOPTO) received a 60.000,00 € grant in the 2021 call (2021 SGR 00444).