The goal of this project is efficient, cheap, environmental safe production of H₂ for small and medium-scale use in remote areas (e.g. small Islands or inaccessible villages) with the use of solar cells based on new perovskite dyes. The H₂ is a clean fuel that can cover the majority of energy needs and the existed problems with its storage have been solved. On the other hand the solar cells can produce cheap electrical energy but it has to be consumed immediately because the storage in batteries it’s expensive and unprofitable. For small communities that are not connected with the energy nets the storage of excess energy as H₂ to be used later (for production of electricity or another energy needs) it will be the perfect solution.
By using the new types of perovskites we hope to eliminate their disadvantages that are their degradation over time and radiation, as well as their toxicity. To address these issues, we are planning to test perovskites based on metals other than Pb (e.g. Sn, Bi Sb, etc.) and use two-dimensional (2D) perovskite systems [e.g. (C₉H₁₉NH₃)₂SnBr₄], nanoparticles of 3D systems, or quasi two-dimensional systems. The design of the perovskites will be based on our previous experience and on theoretical calculations. The prepared perovskites will be fully characterized and tested, in order to choose the most appropriate ones for the development of solar cells
In addition, aspects such as materials used, fabrication and performance testing will be evaluated in order to achieve optimum characteristics and environmental friendliness for use by independent small units (houses, hotels etc).
The main goals of this project, except the fabrication of the specific system, are to build research and development activities between European and Mediterranean Research Institutions and to encourage a strong collaboration for renewable and clean energy fabrication.

Project Information

Project Duration
The project HYDROSOL formally started in 01/06/2016 and it will progress during 36 months.

Funding
GRST - General Secretariat for Research and Technology, Greece.
BMBF - Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany.
MESRST - Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Tunisia.
ERANETMED is funded by the European Commission’s 7th Framework Programme

Consortium

National Hellenic Research Foundation (NHRF)

The group of NHRF is a subset of the Materials Synthesis and Physical Chemistry group and consist of:

• Dr. George Mousdis  a research director with more than 100 publications having more than 20 years of experience in the synthesis and study with low dimentional systems and especially perovskites. He has been a coordinator or participant in more than 10 national and international research projects
• Dr. Nikos Tagmatarchis  a research director with huge experience in the chemical functionalization, all-organic electron donor-acceptor and organic inorganic hybrid materials
• Dr. Maria Kandyla is an Associate Researcher at NHRF. She received her Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Harvard University, USA, in 2006. . She has experience in preparation of thin films and study of their electrical and optical properties
• Dr. M. Kompitsas is a Research Director at NHRF. He has 14 years of experience in pulsed laser deposition and has developed many new specialized techniques. He has grown thin films of pure or nanocomposite metals (M), metal oxides (MO), multilayer structures of metallic thin films, and M/MO/M structures, on different types of substrates including glass, silicon, and flexible polymers
• A PhD student or postdoc will be recruited to work to the project with experience in the synthesis of amines and hybride systems
• In the group will participate also students from the university or polytechnic school doing, master or honour thesis or their practical training. The coordinator and all the members of the group have participated in many international and national projects (as participants or coordinators)

University Konstanz ((UKON) Team)

The group Hybrid Nanostructures lead by Prof. Lukas Schmidt-Mende is focussing its research in the fabrication and characterisation of organic and hybrid solar cells. Currently the group consists of 1 Professor, 10 PhD students, 5 Postdocs and 5 Master students. Of these, 1 postdoc and 4 PhD students currently work specifically on perovskite solar cells. The group has strong expertise in the preparation of metal-oxide nanostructures (nanowires, nanotubes, etc.), the preparation of organic and hybrid solar cells with controlled nanostructure and the investigation of the device physics of these cells including spectroscopic measurements, such as impedance spectroscopy and time resolved photoluminescence with our fs-laser system + Streak-camera. The group is one leading group in respect to solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells.
The group has first experience with perovskite (methylammonium-leadiodide perovskite) solar cells. Currently we are employing our nanostructured electrode materials to such perovskite solar cells and the influence on the device physics.
In this project our contribution will consists of device fabrication and in depth physical characterization of the different perovskite types. We see one focus of our research for this project on the comparison of the different perovskite types and the relation between structure and functionality. For this we will employ standard measurement tools, such as JV characteristics under 1 Sun (AM1.5g) illumination and the measurement of the external quantum efficiency (EQE) to record the important solar parameters such as efficiency, open circuit voltage VOC, short circuit current density JSC and fill factor FF. Impedance spectroscopy, photo-voltage and –current decay (PVD/PCD) and time-resolved photoluminescence measurements will allow us to investigate the role of charge carrier mobility and recombination.

Ludwig-Maximilian University - Munich (LMUM) team

Photonics and Optoelectronics Group at Faculty of Physics, led by Prof. Jochen Feldmann, is one of the leading groups in time-resolved and single molecule spectroscopy and in functional nanostructures. The group consists of 1 professor, 4 subgroup leaders, 10 postdocs and 14 PhD-students. Dr. Jacek Stolarczyk, one of the 4 subgroup leaders, leads the Photocatalysis and Energy Conversion subgroup.  Over the recent years the group has built a strong expertise in photocatalytic solar fuel generation, focusing in particular on semiconductor nanocrystals coupled with metal or metal oxide nanoparticles as photocatalyst materials for water splitting applications. The research of the subgroup is concentrated both of the development of novel nanostructured materials for improvement in the yield of the photocatalytic processes (for example highly efficient nickel based co-catalysts for hydrogen generation) as well as on detailed study of the mechanism of the involved charge separation and transfer and the dynamics of the surface redox processes. By combining the two approaches, the group is in unique position to contribute to the development of water splitting devices in combination with the work of other involved partners.
The group intends to recruit a postdoc or a PhD-student to work on the project.

University of SFAX team

The Tunisian team lead by Prof. Younes Abid belongs to the laboratory of applied physics of the University of Sfax; It’s composed of two professors, three post doctoral researchers and three PhD students. Our team is known for its expertise in the synthesis  and characterization of hybrid materials of perovskite type. During the last decade we were particularly interested in the optical and optoelectronic properties of these materials,. the most interesting results were obtained for the perovskites lead-iodide base as 4Fphenyl ammoniumPbI4 because they have the most intense luminescence associated with very stable excitons, with a binding energy that reaches several hundred of meV, This may explain the intensity of luminescence at room temperature.
Because of the toxicity of lead, we are interested in other low-dimensional hybrid materials with competitive optical properties, such as hybrid-based bismuth halides; cupper  halides and tin halides.
In this project, our laboratory has theoretical and experimental contributions.
The experimental contributions:  In addition to the synthesis of these materials the contribution of our team in this project is to study the optical properties of the new perovskites themselves and of the devices containing them.

Results

Publications

1. Low Dimensional organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites. G. Mousdis, A. Ioannou, V. Psycharis, C. P. Raptopoulou. 12o Pan-Hellenic Scientific Conference on Chemical Engineering, 29-31/5/2019 Athens.  Book of Proceedings MN0031 (oral).
   
   
2. Ηybrid organic-inorganic compounds with a perovskite structure. A. Ioannou, G. Mousdis, K. Kolia, K. Milonakou-Koufoudaki, V. Psycharis. 12o Pan-Hellenic Scientific Conference on Chemical Engineering, 29-31/5/2019 Athens. Book of Proceedings MN0026 (oral).
   
   
3. “All-in-one visible-light-driven water splitting by combining nanoparticulate and molecular co-catalysts on CdS nanorods”, C. M. Wolff, P. D. Frischmann, M. Schulze, B. J. Bohn, R. Wein, P. Livadas, M. T. Carlson, F. Jäckel, J. Feldmann, F. Würthner, J. K. Stolarczyk. Nature Energy 2018.
   DOI: 10.1038/s41560-018-0229-6
   
   
4. “Synthesis and characterization of new organic-inorganic hybrid compounds based on Sb, with a perovskite like structure” G. C. Anyfantis, N.-M. Ganotopoulos, A. Savvidou, C. P. Raptopoulou, V. Psycharis, G. A. Mousdis. Polyhedron 151, 299-305  (2018)
   DOI: 10.1016/j.poly.2018.05.024
   
   
5. “Interface-Dependent Radiative and Nonradiative Recombination in Perovskite Solar Cells.” K. K. Wong, A. Fakharuddin, P. Ehrenreich, T. Deckert, M. Abdi-Jalebi, R. H. Friend, L. Schmidt-Mende. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 122(20), 10691-10698. (2018)
   DOI:10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b00998
   
   
6. “Effect of nitrogen atom positioning on the trade-off between emissive and photocatalytic properties of carbon dots”S.  Bhattacharyya, F.  Ehrat, P.  Urban, R. Teves, R. Wyrwich, M. Döblinger, J.  Feldmann, A.S. Urban, and J. K.  Stolarczyk. Nature Communications 8(1), 1401 (2017)
   DOI:10.1038/s41467-017-01463-x
   
   
7. “Temperature dependence of excitonic emission in [(CH3)2NH2] 3 [BiI6] organic–inorganic natural self assembled bimodal quantum dots.” H. Abid, A. Samet, A. Mlayah, H. Boughzala, and Y. Abid. Optical Materials 73, 89-94. (2017)
   DOI:10.1016/j.optmat.2017.07.050
   
   
8. “Preparation and Characterization of some new one-dimensional organic-inorganic hybrid materials based on Sb”  G .A. Mousdis, N. M. Ganotopoulos,  H. Barkaoui, Y. Abid, V. Psycharis, A. Savvidou and C. P. Raptopoulou. Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 2017, 3401-3408 (2017)
   DOI:10.1002/ejic.201700277
   
   
9. “Effect of Nitrogen Atom-Positioning on the Trade-off between Emissive and Photocatalytic Properties of Carbon Dots” S. Bhattacharyya, F. Ehrat, P. Urban, R. Teves, R. Wyrwich, M. Döbliner, J. Feldmann, A. S. Urban, and J. K. Stolarczyk, Nature Communications 8, 1401 (2017) 
   DOI:10.1038/s41467-017-01463-x
   
   
10. “Quasi-white light emission involving Forster resonance energy transfer in a new organic inorganic tin chloride based material (AMPS) [SnCl6]H2O” Thameur Dammak, Younes Abid. Optical Materials 66 (2017) 302-307
    DOI :10.1016/j.optmat.2017.02.020
    
    
11. Spectroscopic Ellipsometry thin film and First-principles calculations of electronic and linear optical properties of [(C9H19NH3)2PbI2Br2] 2D perovskite  
    Haitham Abid, El Kebir Hlil, Younes Abid Journal of Solid State Chemistry · January 2017
    DOI:10.1016/j.jssc.2017.01.004
    
    
12. “Broadband emission involving resonant energy transfer in a new one-dimensional hybrid material: (C9H10N2)PbCl4” Hamdi Barkaoui, Haitham Abid, Aymen Yangui, Smail Triki, Kamel Boukheddaden, and Younes Abid. Accepted paper in Physical review B

Presentations in international conferences

1. Structural relations in hybrid organic-inorganic halide perovskites and the role of hydrogen bonds. V. Psycharis, Aik. Savvidou, C. P. Raptopoulou, A. Terzis, G. Mousdis, A. Kaltzogoua and P. Falaras. 8th North America-Greece-Cyprus Workshop on Paramagnetic Materials: NAGC 2018 Sparta, Greece – June 18-22, 2018 (oral)

Lectures at Universities and other events

1. New organic – inorganic hybrid materials as possible replacement for lead perovskites at photovoltaic applications. . G. Mousdis, A. Ioannou, Pearl-PV Cost Action (CA16235) MC meeting and WG workshops 25-28/2/2019 (oral).
   
   
2. “Ήλιος πηγή ενέργειας και καθαριότητας, (Φωτοβολταϊκά-φωτοδιάσπαση νερού-φωτοκαταλυτικός καθαρισμός αέρα και νερού)”  
   Η Φυσική Μαγεύει  15-17/12/2017 TEI Αθηνών

Meetings

Kick off Meeting

Kickoff meeting on 21-22 February 2017 in the seminar room of the NHRF in Athens - Greece. 

Participants
(NHRF)
Dr. George Mousdis, Dr. M. Kandyla, Dr. M. Kompitsas, Georgia Petropoulou (Master Student)

(UKON)
Prof. L. Schmidt-Mende, Dr. A. Fakharuddin 

(LMUM)
Dr. J. Stolarczyk

(Univ. Sfax)
Assist. Prof. Haïtham Abid

2nd Meeting 

22-23 February 2018 at the Hotel LIDO La Goulette Tunis - Tunisia

Participants

(NHRF)
Dr. George Mousdis

(UKON)
Prof. L. Schmidt-Mende

(Univ. Sfax)
Younes Abid
H. Barkaoui

3nd Meeting 14-15 March 2019 NANO Institute Munich Koninginstr 10

Participants
(NHRF) 
Dr. George Mousdis, Dr. M. Kompitsas, Anna Ioannou

(UKON) 
Prof. L. Schmidt-Mende

(LMUM)
Dr. J. Stolarczyk and some PhD students

(Univ. Sfax)
Prof. Yunes Abid

Downloads

• Flyer in English
• Flyer in Greek
• Flyer in German
• Flyer in French
• Flyer in Arabic
  

Contact

We are looking for partners and organizations interested in this project and aimed to satisfy the market that could bring the technology to the applied research.
For any inquiry inherent to the project or for a partner collaboration proposal please contact
George A. Mousdis (gmousdis@eie.gr) or
Lukas Schmidt-Mende (Schmidt-Mende@uni-konstanz.de) or
Younes Abid (younes.abid@fss.rnu.tn) or
Jacek Stolarczyk (Jacek.Stolarczyk@physik.uni-muenchen.de)