NWO grant for Mat4Sus project “Singlet Fission-Sensitized Silicon Solar Cells”

NWO gives sustainable materials research a nine million euro boost.

The funding from the NWO Materials for Sustainability programme (Mat4Sus) will be used to launch fifteen new research projects including the following project:

Doubling the amount of electricity from solar cells
Bruno Ehrler (FOM Institute AMOLF), Han Zuilhof (Wageningen University & Research), Laurens Siebbeles (Delft University of Technology)
Partners: Surfix, Toyota Motor Europe, Energy research Centre of the Netherlands, Wageningen University & Research, Delft University of Technology,
A consortium of researchers from FOM Institute AMOLF, Delft University of Technology and Wageningen University will work on a new type of solar cell capable of doubling the power output per photon, in theory. This is based on the principle of ‘singlet fission’, in which the energy of a high-energy molecule is divided between two molecules. If this can be implemented efficiently, it will lead to a substantial reduction in the cost of solar cells. This, in turn, should expand and accelerate the introduction of renewable energy sources.