Achieving higher solar cell performance through international collaboration

我最近开发了两种基于半导体纳米技术的新型太阳能电池，它们具有更高的效率和更低的成本。为了推动这些技术的发展，现在需要专门的设施对其优势进行更深入的科学理解，并开发新的实施方法，使可再生能源发电更具竞争力。在这笔海外旅行资助中，我将带着我的太阳能电池到新加坡（南洋理工大学）和德国（弗劳恩霍夫太阳能研究所）的实验室进行三个新颖的实验，从而获得所需的专业设施和相关专业知识。这些实验涉及最先进的设备，这些设备在英国并不容易获得，例如，在南洋理工大学，我将研究我的太阳能电池在原子尺度上的当前路径，并将它们与其他太阳能电池技术相结合，以评估新的低成本，高效率的太阳能电池的潜力，这些太阳能电池可以持续扩大规模。同样，在弗劳恩霍夫太阳能研究所，我将把我的太阳能电池暴露在高光集中（超过地球表面太阳功率的500倍），以最大限度地发挥纳米级量子点的作用，从而捕获更多的入射阳光。重要的是，这个研究项目也将使我能够与世界领先的专家开展新的合作。通过知识和技能的交流，它提供了一个独特的专业发展机会，我将利用这一机会在英国进行科学研究和创新。这将通过为涉及工业伙伴的更深入的主要合作研究方案产生必要的可行性数据来实现。该方案还包含若干重要的机会，以便向更广泛的能源材料科学界以及从事科学、技术、工程和数学学科的年轻人和学校教师进行传播。

I have recently developed two new solar cells based on semiconductor nanotechnologies that offer the potential for higher efficiency and lower cost. In order to progress these technologies, specialist facilities are now required to gain a deeper scientific understanding of their advantages and to develop new implementations which will make renewable energy generation more competitive.In this Overseas Travel Grant, I will access the required specialist facilities and related expertise by taking my solar cells to laboratories in Singapore (Nanyang Technical University) and Germany (Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy) and performing three novel experiments. These experiments involve state-of-the-art equipment which are not readily available in the UK for example, at Nanyang Technical University, I will study the current pathways in my solar cells at the atomic scale as well as combining them with other solar cell technology to assess the potential for new low-cost, high efficiency solar cells that can be scaled up sustainably. Similarly, at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy, I will expose my solar cells to high optical concentration (more than 500 times the power of the sun at the Earth's surface) to maximise the contribution from nanometre sized quantum dots which capture more of the incident sunlight.Importantly, this research programme will also enable me to initiate new collaborations with world-leading experts. Through the exchange of knowledge and skills, it offers a unique professional development opportunity that I will exploit to benefit scientific research and innovation in the UK. This will be achieved by generating essential feasibility data for a deeper major programme of collaborative research that will involve industrial partners. The programme also contains several important opportunities for dissemination with the wider energy materials scientific community but also with young people and school teachers that are engaged with science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects.