Launch of new catalysis centre in HZB-Adlershof
The new CatLab (blue area) will be built in close proximity to BESSY II and other laboratories. © HZB
The Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) is launching a major new project through an interdisciplinary architectural competition: an innovative laboratory and office building for expanding joint catalysis research between the HZB and the Max Planck Society (MPS). Catlab is to become an international beacon for catalysis research that will advance the development of novel catalyst materials urgently needed for the energy transition.
The starting signal has been given: the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) is inviting architecture and engineering firms to enter an architectural design competition for an innovative office and laboratory building for conducting advanced research. The building is to meet federal sustainability criteria.
The new building will greatly broaden and enhance R&D activities in the field of catalysis research at all points of the innovation process. Novel catalyst materials are destined to play a central role in the energy transition by helping replace fossil fuels with both hydrogen and synthetic fuels that can be produced using renewable energy.
It is for this reason that the HZB, the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion, and the Fritz Haber Institute of the MPS are launching the long-term CatLab project in Berlin. The project partners intend to advance the development of energy-related catalysts in CatLab at the HZB-Adlershof site. CatLab’s close proximity to HZB’s BESSY II synchrotron source and its supporting laboratories with their diverse analysis and characterisation methods will produce major synergies.
The building will be located at Magnusstraße 10 in Berlin-Adlershof. An essential feature of the building must be modular expandability. Laboratory and office space should be seamlessly integrated with an Innovation Centre and a data science platform. The laboratory and office requirements that are essential for CatLab should be covered by the initial construction phase. Two further building sections are planned that will provide a location for research activities in the field of Data Science, and establish an anchor for further large industrial collaborations with space for everything from initial exploratory experiments to fully mature applications.
- New contact material boosts the efficiency of perovskite solar cellsA newly developed material for the electron contact improves the efficiency of single perovskite solar cells and perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells. The new material is based on a carborane molecule. It offers several advantages over the standard material C60, as shown by the study led by Steve Albrecht’s team. The new material has since been patented and is already commercially available.
- Precision interface chemistry pushes perovskite solar cells beyond 26% efficiencyAn international research collaboration has developed a new molecular strategy for controlling one of the most critical interfaces in perovskite solar cells. The resulting solar cells reached a power conversion efficiency of 26.19% in the n i p architecture, together with strong operational stability under prolonged illumination and elevated temperature. The results have been published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
- Perovskite triple-junction solar cells: Even more efficient with GO/SAM bilayersPerovskite semiconductors efficiently convert sunlight into electrical energy; they are also inexpensive and extremely lightweight. A team at HZB has developed a triple-junction solar cell comprising different perovskite semiconductors, with a novel bilayer of graphene oxide (GO) and a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) as the hole conductor. This bilayer significantly increases both efficiency and long-term stability. The efficiency of the novel perovskite triple-junction solar cell is 27.3% and shows hardly any decline even after more than 770 hours of operation. The study has been published in the renowned journal Joule.