HySPRINT Photovoltaics Lab inaugurated
© HZB
After around four years of renovation, photovoltaics research groups moved into their offices in Kekuléstraße on 20 June 2024. With the reopening, the building has also been given a new name that makes the research more visible: it is now called HySPRINT Photovoltaics Lab.
The conversion had become necessary because the ventilation capacity was no longer sufficient for the laboratory activities. The newly installed ventilation system is so large that it is now located on the roof instead of in the building. The supporting structure is a technical platform that stands on 14 supports with a separate foundation virtually inside the building.
To build the stage, the rooms from the basement to the upper floor had to be emptied. The expandable ventilation system now enables the operation of the HySPRINT laboratories and the KOALA laboratory as well as the expansion of other modern laboratories in the building. The technical platform also provides the technical requirements for installing a photovoltaic system on the roof.
Eva Unger, Steve Albrecht and Antonio Abate hosted a barbecue at the opening and thanked all those who helped with the conversion of the building. In their short speeches, they also looked back on the history of the building. They honoured the research that took place in the former Institute for Silicon Photovoltaics and contributed significantly to the reputation of the HZB. A new era has long since begun with perovskite research and world records. In September 2023, the HZB teams won the first Helmholtz High Impact Award for their outstanding research on novel perovskite materials.
- 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.
- BESSY II: New sample environment allows glimpse into thermocatalytic processesA novel measurement cell allows, for the first time, soft and hard X-ray investigations under high pressures of up to 20 bar and temperatures of up to 400°C. This provides new insights into thermocatalytic processes, such as the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis for producing synthetic fuels. The development of the measurement cell is considered a significant achievement within the Care-O-Sene project.
- 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.