Registration open for Quantsol Summer School
Learning about solar fuels and photovoltaics goes green. The summerschool takes place from 3. to 10. september 2017 in the idyllic Kleinwalsertal, Austria. © Quantsol/HZB
Last year’s Quantsol students came from all over the world. The location offers space for 56 students. © Quantsol/HZB
Newcomers and young scientists in solar energy research can register now for the 10. International Summer School on Photovoltaics and New Concepts of Quantum Solar Energy Conversion (Quantsol). The school is organized by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and the Technical University of Ilmenau and will be held from 3. to 10. September 2017 in Hirschegg, Kleinwalsertal, Austria. Applications can be submitted through the school’s homepage until May 21st, 2017.
“The Quantsol summer school offers a very comprehensive introduction to the field of photovoltaics and photocatalysis and is a great learning experience and a “must attend” for PhD students and postdocs in their early career. In the past, we have received an overwhelmingly positive feedback leading to oversubscription of the school every year” says Prof. Dr. Klaus Lips from Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin.
Invited speakers, all internationally recognized scientists from leading world institutions, will give lectures covering topics on the fundamental principles of the conversion of solar energy into chemical and electrical energy as well as the physical and technical challenges of their technological implementation. Another focus lies on solar-specific material science and their characterization. In addition, the school will give hands-on training on how to build your own solar cell as well as an introduction to solar cell simulation.
If you are interested to participate in the Quantsol Summer School you can find much more detailed information on our homepage or in our flyer (download right).
The deadline for application is May 21, 2017. Here you get directly to the application form.
If you will not be able to attend this years’ Quantsol summer school – no worries - the next school has already scheduled for September 2 to 9, 2018.
- Tiburtius Prize for Eike KöhnenOn Tuesday, 6 December 2022, Dr. Eike Köhnen received the Tiburtius Prize (First Place) for outstanding dissertations. Eike Köhnen has contributed to significantly increasing the efficiency of tandem solar cells made of perovskite and silicon, to the point of setting world records.
- Nanodiamonds can be activated as photocatalysts with sunlightNanodiamond materials have potential as low-cost photocatalysts. But until now, such carbon nanoparticles required high-energy UV light to become active. The DIACAT consortium has therefore produced and analysed variations of nanodiamond materials. The work shows: If the surface of the nanoparticles is occupied by sufficient hydrogen atoms, even the weaker energy of blue sunlight is sufficient for excitation. Future photocatalysts based on nanodiamonds might be able to convert CO2 or N2 into hydrocarbons or ammonia with sunlight.
- New monochromator optics for tender X-raysUntil now, it has been extremely tedious to perform measurements with high sensitivity and high spatial resolution using X-ray light in the tender energy range of 1.5 - 5.0 keV. Yet this X-ray light is ideal for investigating energy materials such as batteries or catalysts, but also biological systems. A team from HZB has now solved this problem: The newly developed monochromator optics increase the photon flux in the tender energy range by a factor of 100 and thus enable highly precise measurements of nanostructured systems. The method was successfully tested for the first time on catalytically active nanoparticles and microchips.