13CSER025 - Plasmonic supraparticles and photonic quasicrystals for enhanced light-trapping in solar cells
| Project number | 13CSER025 |
| Project title | Plasmonic supraparticles and photonic quasicrystals for enhanced light-trapping in solar cells |
| Applicant(s) | Prof.dr.ir. M. Dijkstra |
| Abstract | The aim of this proposal is to study self-assembly of nanoparticles into supraparticles which exhibit plasmonic properties and to self-assemble these supraparticles into colloidal quasicrystals that possess a photonic band gap. The unique combination of plasmonic supraparticles incorporated in photonic quasicrystals leads to unprecedented light-trapping possibilities in thin-film solar cells. The proposal is based on recent progress of our group in developing new computational algorithms to predict self-assembly of arbitrarily shaped particles, as well as on recent advances in the chemical synthesis that have resulted in a huge variety of colloidal building blocks. We plan to study by computer simulations not only the self-assembly of these hierarchical structures, but we will also compute their photonic and plasmonic properties and their ability to trap light in photovoltaic cells. The ultimate goal is to provide self-assembly routes of matter at relevant length scales for novel materials that enhance the solar cell efficiency. |
| Project budget | k€ 272 (includes 1 PhD student and material budget) |
| Duration | 2014 - 2018 |