Research Groups

RESEARCH UNIT: Nanostructured Materials for Optoelectronics and Energy Harvesting

Nanostructured Materials for Optoelectronics and Energy Harvesting (NANOPTO)

We use scientifc knowledge to help provide clean energy by developing photovoltaic and thermoelectric technologies with new functionalizites, low cost and higher environmental sustainability.

The Nanostructured Materials for Optoelectronics and Energy Harvesting (NANOPTO) group focuses on the production and characterization of advanced semiconducting structures with the main objective of understanding their fundamental behavior in order to tailor and improve their functionalities and empower different applications in the areas of optoelectronics, energy management, and sensing devices.

The group is divided into four different research activities: Optoelectronics of group-IV semiconductor nanostructures, Organic-Inorganic Thermoelectrics, Photonic Architectures for Light Management and Organic Solar Cells.

Members

Dr. Maria Isabel Alonso - Research Scientist
Dr. Mariano Campoy-Quiles - Research Scientist
Dr. Miquel Garriga - Research Scientist
Dr. Alejandro R. Goñi - ICREA Research Professor
Dr. Agustín Mihi - Tenured Scientist
Dr. Sebastián Reparaz - Tenured Scientist
Dr. Valentina Belova - Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. Laura Ciammaruchi - Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. Bernhard Dörling - Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. Juan Luis Garcia-Pomar - Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. Nicolás Pasarelli - Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. Aleksandr Perevedentsev - Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. Luis Alberto Pérez - Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. Leonardo Scarabelli - Postdoctoral Researcher
Ivan Álvarez Corzo - Project Researcher
Rana Adel Mohamed - PhD Researcher
Miquel Casademont - PhD Researcher
Camilla Dore - PhD Researcher
Adrián Francisco López - PhD Researcher
Martí Gibert Roca - PhD Researcher
Mayte Gómez-Castaño - PhD Researcher
Albert Harillo - PhD Researcher
Jinhui Hu - PhD Researcher
José Piers Jurado - PhD Researcher
Minghua Kong - PhD Researcher
Cristiano Matricardi - PhD Researcher
Jose Mendoza Carreño - PhD Researcher
Pau Molet - PhD Researcher
Enrique Pascual San José - PhD Researcher
Xabier Rodriguez Martínez - PhD Researcher
Kai Xu - PhD Researcher
Osnat Zapata-Arteaga - PhD Researcher
Carmen del Pino - Master Student
Emna Gnnena - PhD Researcher

a. Perovskite nanoparticles shaped into photonic supercrystals display amplified spontaneous emission. b. High throughput screening of organic energy materials using gradients. c. Phase diagram of lead iodide perovskites derived from optical measurements. d. Long period compositionally graded SiGe superlattices can be tailored to control phonon (heat) transmission.

Achievements

The group would like to highlight four main achievements:

i) CsPbBr3 perovskite nanocrystals are readily shaped into large‐area 2D photonic supercrystals by means of nanoimprinting lithography. in our Research Article (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2020, 59, 17750–17756) The periodic patterning provides efficient light coupling to the nanocrystal layer, increasing the electric field intensity within the perovskite film and resulting in amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) under lower optical excitation fluences in the near‐IR.

Our work in the front cover of the journal illustrates the nanocrystal assembly process and the resulting photonic architecture after the mold has been removed.

ii) We demonstrate how to generate controllable compositional gradients in solid‐state organic thin films deposited from solution that provide access to extensive compositional libraries. We use this ability to enable the high‐throughput exploration of the parametric landscape of functional solids and devices in a resource‐, time‐, and cost‐efficient manner. We apply this to multiple energy materials, namely ternary organic photovoltaics (DOI: 10.1002/aenm.201902417 ), polymer:polymer photovoltaics (DOI: 10.1002/aenm.202001308 ), polymer thermoelectrics (DOI: 10.1021/acsenergylett.0c01410), and optoelectronic devices (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-17361-8 )

iii) Temperature-dependent photoluminescence and Raman scattering measurements are shown to be complementary to determine the complete phase diagram of methylammonium/formamidinium lead iodide perovskite solid solutions. We established important links between crystal-phase stability and the electronic as well as vibrational properties of these hybrid perovskites, important for the current search for more stable best-performing optoelectronic materials.

iv) The use of planar Si/SixGe1–x superlattices with intentional compositional gradients formed during low-temperature MBE deposition with a sufficient number of interfaces is very effective in decreasing the thermal conductivity. Appropriate composition profiles can be designed to control scattering mechanisms at multiple length scales, which has great potential for micro- and nano-thermoelectric generation and cooling of Si-based devices.

Publications

Echoes from quantum confinement
Goni, Alejandro
R. NATURE MATERIALS 2020, 19, 1138–1139, 10.1038/s41563-020-0796-3

Microfluidic-Assisted Blade Coating of Compositional Libraries for Combinatorial Applications: The Case of Organic Photovoltaics
Rodriguez-Martinez, Xabier; Sevim, Semih; Xu, Xiaofeng; Franco, Carlos; Pamies-Puig, Paula; Corcoles-Guija, Laura; Rodriguez-Trujillo, Romen; Javier del Campo, Francisco; Rodriguez San Miguel, David; deMello, Andrew J.; Pane, Salvador; Amabilino, David B.; Inganas, Olle; Puigmarti-Luis, Josep; Campoy-Quiles, Mariano
ADVANCED ENERGY MATERIALS 2020, 10, 33, 2001308, 10.1002/aenm.202001308

Reduction of the Lattice Thermal Conductivity of Polymer Semiconductors by Molecular Doping
Zapata-Arteaga, Osnat; Perevedentsev, Aleksandr; Marina, Sara; Martin, Jaime; Sebastian Reparaz, Juan; Campoy-Quiles, Mariano
ACS ENERGY LETTERS 2020, 5, 9, 2972-2978, 10.1021/acsenergylett.0c01410

Rapid and high-resolution patterning of microstructure and composition in organic semiconductors using 'molecular gates'
Perevedentsev, Aleksandr; Campoy-Quiles, Mariano
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS 2020, 11, 1, 3610, 10.1038/s41467-020-17361-8

Templated-Assembly of CsPbBr(3)Perovskite Nanocrystals into 2D Photonic Supercrystals with Amplified Spontaneous Emission
Vila-Liarte, David; Feil, Maximilian W.; Manzi, Aurora; Luis Garcia-Pomar, Juan; Huang, He; Doeblinger, Markus; Liz-Marzan, Luis M.; Feldmann, Jochen; Polavarapu, Lakshminarayana; Mihi, Agustin
ANGEWANDTE CHEMIE-INTERNATIONAL EDITION 2020, 59, 40, 17750-17756, 10.1002/anie.202006152

Reply to the Comment on the publication 'Ferroelectricity-free lead halide perovskites'
Colsmann et al. Gomez, Andres; Wang, Qiong; Goni, Alejandro R.; Campoy-Quiles, Mariano; Abate, Antonio
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE 2020, 13, 6, 1892-1895 10.1039/d0ee00880j

Suppressing Co-Crystallization of Halogenated Non-Fullerene Acceptors for Thermally Stable Ternary Solar Cells
Hultmark, Sandra; Paleti, Sri Harish Kumar; Harillo, Albert; Marina, Sara; Nugroho, Ferry Anggoro Ardy; Liu, Yanfeng; Ericsson, Leif K. E.; Li, Ruipeng; Martin, Jaime; Bergqvist, Jonas; Langhammer, Christoph; Zhang, Fengling; Yu, Liyang; Campoy-Quiles, Mariano; Moons, Ellen; Baran, Derya; Mueller, Christian
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS 2020, 2005462, 10.1002/adfm.202005462

Multiplex SERS Detection of Metabolic Alterations in Tumor Extracellular Media
Plou, Javier; Garcia, Isabel; Charconnet, Mathias; Astobiza, Ianire; Garcia-Astrain, Clara; Matricardi, Cristiano; Mihi, Agustin; Carracedo, Arkaitz; Liz-Marzan, Luis M.
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS 2020, 30, 17, 1910335, 10.1002/adfm.201910335

Controlling the Thermoelectric Properties of Organometallic Coordination Polymers via Ligand Design
Liu, Zilu; Liu, Tianjun; Savory, Christopher N.; Jurado, Jose P.; Sebastian Reparaz, Juan; Li, Jianwei; Pan, Long; Faul, Charl F. J.; Parkin, Ivan P.; Sankar, Gopinathan; Matsuishi, Satoru; Campoy-Quiles, Mariano; Scanlon, David O.; Zwijnenburg, Martijn A.; Fenwick, Oliver; Schroeder, Bob C.
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS 2020, 30, 32, 2003106, 10.1002/adfm.202003106

Towards photovoltaic windows: scalable fabrication of semitransparent modules based on non-fullerene acceptors via laser-patterning
Pascual-San-Jose, Enrique; Sadoughi, Golnaz; Lucera, Luca; Stella, Marco; Martinez-Ferrero, Eugenia; Morse, Graham Edward; Campoy-Quiles, Mariano; Burgues-Ceballos, Ignasi
JOURNAL OF MATERIALS CHEMISTRY A 2020, 8, 19, 9882-9895, 10.1039/d0ta02994g

Hydroxypropyl Cellulose Adhesives for Transfer Printing of Carbon Nanotubes and Metallic Nanostructures
Dore, Camilla; Dorling, Bernhard; Garcia-Pomar, Juan Luis; Campoy-Quiles, Mariano; Mihi, Agustin
SMALL 2020, 2004795, 10.1002/smll.202004795

Correlating the Phase Behavior with the Device Performance in Binary Poly-3-hexylthiophene: Nonfullerene Acceptor Blend Using Optical Probes of the Microstructure
Rezasoltani, Elham; Guilbert, Anne A. Y.; Yan, Jun; Rodriguez-Martinez, Xabier; Azzouzi, Mohammed; Eisner, Flurin; Tuladhar, Sachetan M.; Hamid, Zeinab; Wadsworth, Andrew; McCulloch, Iain; Campoy-Quiles, Mariano; Nelson, Jenny
CHEMISTRY OF MATERIALS 2020, 32, 19, 8294-8305, 10.1021/acs.chemmater.0c02093

High-Throughput Nanofabrication of Metasurfaces with Polarization-Dependent Response
Matricardi, Cristiano; Garcia-Pomar, Juan Luis; Molet, Pau; Perez, Luis Alberto; Alonso, Maria Isabel; Campoy-Quiles, Mariano; Mihi, Agustin
ADVANCED OPTICAL MATERIALS 2020, 2000786, 10.1002/adom.202000786

Electrodeposited Negative Index Metamaterials with Visible and Near Infrared Response
Gomez-Castano, Mayte; Garcia-Pomar, Juan Luis; Perez, Luis Alberto; Shanmugathasan, Sharvina; Ravaine, Serge; Mihi, Agustin
ADVANCED OPTICAL MATERIALS 2020, 8, 19, 2000865, 10.1002/adom.202000865

Enhanced Directional Light Extraction from Patterned Rare‐Earth Phosphor Films
Elena Cabello‐Olmo, Pau Molet, Agustín Mihi, Gabriel Lozano and Hernán Míguez
Advanced Optical Materials 2020, 10.1002/adom.202001611

Large area metasurfaces made with spherical silicon resonators
Molet, Pau; Karime Gil-Herrera, Luz; Luis Garcia-Pomar, Juan; Caselli, Niccolo; Blanco, Alvaro; Lopez, Cefe; Mihi, Agustin
NANOPHOTONICS 2020, 9, 4, 943-951, 10.1515/nanoph-2020-0035

Effective interplay of donor and acceptor groups for tuning optoelectronic properties in oligothiophene-naphthalimide assemblies
Alonso-Navarro, Matias J.; Harbuzaru, Alexandra; de Echegaray, Paula; Arrechea-Marcos, Iratxe; Harillo-Banos, Albert; de la Pena, Alejandro; Ramos, M. Mar; Lopez Navarrete, J. Teodomiro; Campoy-Quiles, Mariano; Ponce Ortiz, Rocio; Segura, Jose L.
JOURNAL OF MATERIALS CHEMISTRY C 2020, 8, 43, 15277-15289, 10.1039/d0tc03026k

Near infrared organic photodetectors based on enhanced charge transfer state absorption by photonic architectures
Gibert-Roca, Marti; Molet, Pau; Mihi, Agustin; Campoy-Quiles, Mariano
JOURNAL OF MATERIALS CHEMISTRY C 2020, 8, 28, 9688-9696 10.1039/d0tc02295k

Closing the Stability-Performance Gap in Organic Thermoelectrics by Adjusting the Partial to Integer Charge Transfer Ratio
Zapata-Arteaga, Osnat; Dorling, Bernhard; Perevedentsev, Aleksandr; Martin, Jaime; Sebastian Reparaz, J.; Campoy-Quiles, Mariano
MACROMOLECULES 2020, 53, 231, 609-620, 10.1021/acs.macromol.9b02263

Homoconjugation in Light-Emitting Poly(phenylene methylene)s: Origin and Pressure-Enhanced Photoluminescence
Perevedentsev, Aleksandr; Francisco-Lopez, Adrian; Shi, Xingyuan; Braendle, Andreas; Caseri, Walter R.; Goni, Alejandro R.; Campoy-Quiles, Mariano
MACROMOLECULES 2020, 53, 17, 7519-7527, 10.1021/acs.macromol.0c01153

Are anthropogenic fibres a real problem for red mullets ( Mullus barbatus) from the NW Mediterranean?
Rodriguez-Romeu, Oriol; Constenla, Maria; Carrasson, Maite; Campoy-Quiles, Mariano; Soler-Membrives, Anna
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2020, 733, 139336, 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139336

Investigating Thermoelectric Stability under Encapsulation Using PEI-Doped CNT Films as a Model System
Abdallah, Fatma; Ciammaruchi, Laura; Jimenez-Arguijo, Alex; Duraia, El-Shazly M.; Ragab, Hossam S.; Dorling, Bernhard; Campoy-Quiles, Mariano
ADVANCED MATERIALS TECHNOLOGIES 2020, 5, 7, 2000256, 10.1002/admt.202000256

Influence of Nb-doping on the local structure and thermoelectric properties of transparent TiO 2:Nb thin films
Ribeiro, J. M.; Correia, F. C.; Kuzmin, A.; Jonane, I.; Kong, M.; Goni, A. R.; Reparaz, J. S.; Kalinko, A.; Welter, E.; Tavares, C. J.
JOURNAL OF ALLOYS AND COMPOUNDS 2020, 838, 155561, 10.1016/j.jallcom.2020.155561

Phase Diagram of Methylammonium/Formamidinium Lead Iodide Perovskite Solid Solutions from Temperature-Dependent Photoluminescence and Raman Spectroscopies
Francisco-Lopez, Adrian; Charles, Bethan; Alonso, M. Isabel; Garriga, Miguel; Campoy-Quiles, Mariano; Weller, Mark T.; Goni, Alejandro R.
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY C 2020, 124, 6, 3448-3458, 10.1021/acs.jpcc.9b10185

Structure dependent photostability of ITIC and ITIC-4F
L. Ciammaruchi, O. Zapata-Arteaga, E. Gutiérrez-Fernández, J. Martin and M. Campoy-Quiles
Materials Advances 2020, 1, 2846-2861, 10.1039/D0MA00458H

Beating the Thermal Conductivity Alloy Limit Using Long-Period Compositionally Graded Si1-xGex Superlattices
Ferrando-Villalba, P.; Chen, Shunda; Lopeandia, A. F.; Alvarez, F. X.; Alonso, M., I; Garriga, M.; Santiso, J.; Garcia, G.; Goni, A. R.; Donadio, D.; Rodriguez-Viejo, J.
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY C 2020, 124, 36, 19864-19872, 10.1021/acs.jpcc.0c06410

A setup to measure the Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity of anisotropic thin-films on a single sample
Dorling, Bernhard; Zapata-Arteaga, Osnat; Campoy-Quiles, Mariano
REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS 2020, 91, 10, 105111, 10.1063/5.0021715

Outreach activities

Creation of a new YouTube Channel for the group
Nanopto Research Group - YouTube

Interview by the ICMAB on the newly granted ERC PoC for the ORGIVINE project

Interview by the CSIC on the newly granted ERC PoC for the ORGIVINE project

Participation on the LabEnClass workshop project by Mariano Campoy-Quiles
ICMAB - More than 500 students discover the ICMAB sustainable materials for energy

Numerous appearences in the press, including Agencia SINC, La Razón, La Sexta, the main CSIC web, Nature blog, etc.

Awards&Recognitgions

Selection of "Structure dependent photostability of ITIC and ITIC-4F" for Editors Choice Collection of the Journal Material Advances by Laura Ciammaruchi, Osnat Zapata and Mariano Campoy-Quiles

Best ePoster on "Towards Photovoltaic Windows: Laser-assisted Fabrication of Semitransparent OPV Modules Based on Non-fullerene Acceptors" at HOPV conference by Enrique Pascual

"SENSORAÏM: Organic thermoelectric generator to monitor vineyards" finalist at the Idees Innovadores Isabel P. Trabal contest by Mariano Campoy-Quiles, Bernhard Dörling, Andrés Gómez and Ivan Álvarez

UAB award for Extraordinary PhD for "Conjugated Materials for Thermoelectrics and Photovoltaics" by Bernhard Dörling

Cover in Advanced Energy Materials for "Efficient exploration of the composition space in ternary organic solar cells by combining high-throughput material libraries and hyperspectral imaging" by A. Harillo-Baños, X. Rodríguez-Martínez and M. Campoy-Quiles

Cover in Angewandte for "Templated-Assembly of CsPbBr3 Perovskite Nanocrystals into 2D Photonic Supercrystals with Amplified Spontaneous Emission" by Agustín Mihi

Main projects

RAINBOW: Eficcient harvesting of visible and infrared solar energy through rainbow architectures
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades of Spain.
Alejandro R. Goñi and Mariano Campoy-Quiles
From 2019

FOREMAT: Finding a needle in a haystack: efficient identification of high performing organic energy materials
ERC Consolidator Grant starting in October 2015 aimed at developing highly efficient organic based solar cells and thermoelectric generators.
Mariano Campoy
2015-2020

SEPOMO 'Structure-processing-performance nexus of solution processed organic thin films'
ESR-11: PhD at Eurecat
Mariano Campoy-Quiles
From 2017

SENSORAÏM: Autonomous Distributed Sensor Networks for a Smart Viticulture
PRODUCTE 2018 PROD 00191, FEDER of Catalunya, AGAUR grants
Mariano Campoy-Quiles
2019-2020

LabEnClass. The energy of the future: from the lab to the classroom
FGCSIC "Cuenta la Ciencia"
Mariano Campoy-Quiles
2020

Hybrid photovoltaic and thermoelectric (PV/TE) devices based on organic semiconductors
Beca INPhINIT (La Caixa), Marie Sklodowska-Curie- COFUND
Jose P. Jurado
2017-2020

Plasmon-resonance driven thermionic emitters for improved solar energy harvesting
H2020-MSCA-IF-2018
Alejandro Goñi
2019 - 2021

Desarrollando la próxima generación de sensores térmicos en la nanoescala
MINECO - PROYECTOS I+D, MAT2017-90024-P
Sebastian Reparaz
2018 - 2020

Sustratos basados en cristales plasmónicos para la detección de la dispersión Raman amplificada en superfícies
MINECO - PROYECTOS I+D RETOS, MAT2016-79053-P
Agustín Mihi
2016 - 2020

Photonic Electrodes for Enhanced Light Management in Optoelectronic Devices
H2020-ERC-2014-STG
Agustín Mihi
2015 - 2020