Oxide Perovskites for Thermally Enhanced Solar Energy Conversion

Started

Renewable Energy Sources(Solar Energy, Photovoltaics)

Basic and strategic applied research

PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Chemistry)
PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Metallurgy and Materials)

Not Cross-cutting

Professor L Steier
Oxford Chemistry
University of Oxford

Standard

EPSRC

12 August 2024

11 August 2026

24 months

£200,512

Optics; photonics & lasers

South East

UKRI MSCA

Professor L Steier, Oxford Chemistry, University of Oxford

Project Contact, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin

The following research proposal is aimed at providing a fundamental understanding of how dopants and defects (including theirrespective energetic and structural disorder) can modify the electronic structure and charge transport properties of main group metaloxide perovskites, such as oxygen-deficient BaSnO3-x, which possess optically active valent ns2 lone pair states. This project offers anexceptional combination of fundament energy materials theory, advanced spectroscopic characterization, and devicedemonstrations. One of the main goals of the project is to resolve certain controversies in the current understanding of chargetransport in engineered metal oxide semiconductors, which often deviate from the typical band-like models applied to classicalcrystalline absorber materials. Adding specific dopants and/or defects into oxide perovskites, at relatively high concentrations (1-10mol %) can lead to increased peak charge carrier mobilities, moderate carrier concentrations (via compensation), and simultaneouslygenerate mid-band gap states with relatively strong optical transitions. This engineering process has the potential to substantiallyenhance the optoelectronic performance of the oxide semiconductors. A combination of state-of-the-art experimental andtheoretical approaches will be used, including advanced chemical deposition and device fabrication, in-depth materialscharacterization, photo-electrochemical/catalytic analysis, and energy and time dependant spectroscopy. A unique aspect of thisresearch is the characterization of temperature-dependent charge carrier dynamics to provide an accurate mechanisticunderstanding of thermally activated charge transport in oxide materials by considering dynamic disorder models. Subsequently, weaim to demonstrate how solar thermal integration can act as an innovative strategy to enhance the performance of oxide based photocatalytic and photovoltaic (PV) systems for efficient solar energy conversion up to 10%

19/07/23