European Workshop on Nanophotonics for Solar Energy
Participants of the European Workshop on Nanophotonics for Solar Energy. © HZB
On 25 and 26 November 2015, about 40 researchers from seven European countries visited Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin to attend the “European Workshop on Nanophotonics for Solar Energy”.
On 25 and 26 November 2015, about 40 researchers from seven European countries visited Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin to attend the “European Workshop on Nanophotonics for Solar Energy”.
During this workshop, current trends and developments in this field were discussed. Further, future opportunities and possibilities for collaboration were explored during discussions, which were initiated with a talk on funding within the European Commission Horizon 2020 program by Dr. David Kolman from the Brussels Office of the Helmholtz Association. The highlight of the workshop was the Distinguished Lecture by Prof. Thomas F. Krauss from the University of York (UK), in which he shared his vision on the future of Photovoltaics and informed us about the latest research results from his group.
This workshop was initiated and organized by Christiane Becker, Sven Burger and Klaus Jäger within the Berlin Joint Lab for Optical Simulations for Energy (BerOSE), which is a collaboration between Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, Zuse Institute Berlin and the Free University Berlin.
- HZB congratulates Peter Hegemann on winning the Nobel PrizeOur warmest congratulations go to Peter Hegemann, Professor of Neuroscience and Experimental Biophysics at Humboldt University in Berlin. Together with Prof. Georg Nagel (Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg) and Prof. Karl Deisseroth (Stanford University, USA), he has been awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. We are delighted for him, his team, Humboldt University and the entire Berlin scientific community.
- Does African Architecture exist?The world’s first Pan-African Architecture Biennale took place this September in Nairobi, Kenya. People from the worlds of architecture, art, academia and politics from 54 African countries and the diaspora had travelled to Nairobi to exchange ideas on traditional and contemporary building methods, materials, experiences and projects. Samira Aden co-organised this biennial as lead curator. We spoke to her about it.
- Nanosilver as an electrocatalyst for CO₂ reductionVia electrolysis, CO2 can be reduced to CO, a raw material for further chemical products such as fuels. Within the GreenQuest Project, an internation team led by HZB chemist Prashanth Menezes has now systematically investigated catalyst layers made of silver nanoparticles, varying both the size of the particles and their density. The best yield was achieved with nanoparticles with diameters of around 10 nm, which were loosely distributed. Furthermore, they demonstrated how the economic efficiency of the electrochemical cell can be enhanced by integrating an additional chemical reaction at the anode, enabling the simultaneous production of a valuable formic acid, hydrogen, and CO in one device.