Poster award for Johannes Sutter
Johannes Sutter received an award for his poster on solarcells at the NIPHO19. © Privat
Johannes Sutter, PhD student at HZB, was awarded a poster prize at the "International Conference on Perovskite Solar Cells, Photonics and Optoelectronics (NIPHO19)". The conference took place from 25-27 February 2019 in Jerusalem.
Johannes Sutter is working on his PhD in the Nano-SIPPE group of Prof. Dr. Christiane Becker, his experimental work is done in the Helmholtz Innovation Lab HySPRINT at HZB. He won a poster prize at the first international conference at which he was able to present his work. The prize from the scientific publisher Wiley was associated with a book voucher worth 300 euros.
Sutter develops nanostructures at interfaces in perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells in order to facilitate spin coating of perovskite. These nanostructures should have low reflection values and good electronic properties.
By combining the processes of nanoimprint lithography and reactive ion etching, it is possible to transfer the nanostructures into crystalline silicon. Both optical and electronic investigations show that such interface structures can improve the properties of perovskite silicon tandem cells.
- BESSY II: Evaporated perovskites in tandem solar cells improvedPerovskite-silicon tandem solar cells achieve significantly higher efficiencies than silicon solar cells on their own. One particularly attractive method is co-evaporation of the perovskite precursor molecules on top of the silicon subcell. Scientists at HZB have analysed film growth on the nanoscale at BESSY II and found a new way to improve the quality of the perovskite layer: adding a thin seed layer of caesium chloride between the two sub-cells promotes uniform perovskite growth and suppresses the formation of undesired lead iodide at the interface.
- Hatice Mutlu appointed to the Helmholtz Institute HIPOLE in JenaProf. Dr Hatice Mutlu is the new professor of sustainable polymer chemistry at HIPOLE Jena, the Helmholtz Institute for Polymers in Energy Applications. On 17 August 2026, she visited the HZB campus in Berlin-Adlershof including the BESSY II lightsource and discussed future collaboration with researchers and the board of directors.
- Green hydrogen with PEC electrolysers: New insights into transport processesOne method of storing solar energy is to use PEC electrolysers to produce hydrogen. However, scaling up this technology remains challenging. Now, a team at the HZB Institute for Solar Fuels has used 2D fluorescence imaging and particle velocimetry to observe the movement of ions and dissolved gases within the electrolyte during electrolysis. These new insights may prove useful in the development of larger PEC electrolysers.