Ian Sharp receives ERC Consolidator Grant
EU to fund research project on solar energy
2019-12-11 – News from the Physics Department
The prestigious ERC Grants are awarded in various categories. ERC Consolidator Grants are open to researchers with between seven and 12 years’ experience since completion of a doctorate. The projects can receive up to 2 million euros in funding. The four announced awards brings the number of ERC Grants obtained by TUM scientists to a total of 121.
Ian Sharp’s project
A major challenge with classic photovoltaics is that the energy cannot be easily stored at large scale. Prof. Ian Sharp seeks to develop systems that are able to efficiently store solar energy chemically. Materials for such transformations must be able to transfer the absorbed energy efficiently while remaining stable even under aggressive reaction conditions. Transition metal nitride semiconductors may be highly suitable for meeting this challenge, but have not been investigated in detail. With his project SECANS Ian Sharp now wants to close this gap.
Combining advanced methods of semiconductor deposition and interface engineering he aims to create “artificial photosystems.” State-of-the-art spectroscopic techniques will be used to study photochemical stability, mechanisms of energy conversion, and the role of defects and perturbations. The goal is to produce novel nitride semiconductors with self-healing interfaces that can efficiently convert solar energy into chemical energy.
Ian Sharp is Professor of Experimental Semiconductor Physics.