Development and analysis of multifunctional materials and devices for light emitting and photoelectrochemical applications, electrochemical sensing, and bifacial photovoltaic technology

The present proposal aims to fund three pillars of the group’s research activities for the next two years by funding materials, lab assistants, and conferences. The research activities are part of ongoing scientific international cooperations with GEMAC-UVSQ (https://www.gemac.uvsq.fr/en), HZB (https://www.helmholtz-berlin.de/), TU-Ilmenau (https://www.tu-ilmenau.de/) and the University of Chile (https://www.uchile.cl/), and the University of Jaen (https://www.ujaen.es/). The first pillar is aligned with the research of rare earth-doped wide bandgap degenerated semiconductors for up-, down-conversion (shift) layers and alternative light-emitting materials. Study and use n-type SiC/TiO2 heterojunctions as photoanodes for providing a large photovoltage for the Water oxidation and simultaneously assist the electrochemical reduction of nitric oxide and CO2 on the copper based catalyst towards efficient synthesis of ammonia. The materials are grown by RF magnetron sputtering and characterized by means of FTIR, Raman, PL, CL, Van Der Pauw, SEM, XRD, and VASE. The second pillar is based on the application of thin films as precursors for 2D materials, which have an important impact due to their versatility. For that, thin films are prepared by RF magnetron sputtering and subsequently annealed. Different chemical processes lead to the desired 2D Materials from the MXene family. Electrochemical methods such as cyclic voltammetry or linear sweep voltammetry allow the evaluation of the materials\' properties and, thus, their application in biosensing and electrochemical water splitting. As the third pillar, an emerging photovoltaic technology, bifacial modules, will be characterized and monitored for energy performance. Models to predict its energy output under the operational conditions of the Lima region will be developed and contrasted with experimental data.