As photovoltaic technologies diversify, the design and optimization of materials tailored for specific applications become crucial. This symposium focuses on advanced materials and device architectures developed to meet the distinct requirements of emerging PV applications — from integration into everyday environments to operation under extreme conditions. Contributions are welcome on all types of PV technologies, including silicon, III-V, CIGS, perovskite, organic, and dye-sensitized and tandem systems. Topics of interest include materials and interfaces for Building-Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV), such as semitransparent and color-tunable absorbers; materials engineering for Indoor PV optimized under low-light spectra; and innovations enabling AgriPV and PV–battery hybrid systems. We also invite research on functional materials for solar-to-fuel conversion, wearable and flexible PV for portable electronics, and robust PV architectures for space and underwater operation. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the interplay between composition, stability, and performance in non-conventional environments. The symposium aims to bring together materials scientists, device engineers, and application specialists to advance the rational design of photovoltaic materials enabling new frontiers in energy harvesting and integration.
- Advanced materials design and interface engineering for emergent PV technologies (perovskite, organic, tandem architecture, CIGS, III V, DSSC, Si-based).
- Semitransparent and color-tunable absorbers for Building-Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV).
- Materials optimization for Indoor Photovoltaics operating under low and artificial illumination.
- Photovoltaic materials and architectures for AgriPV and energy–food co-production systems.
- Coupled PV–battery and hybrid materials for integrated energy harvesting and storage.
- Photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical materials for solar-to-fuel conversion.
- Flexible, wearable, and lightweight PV materials for portable and self-powered devices.
- Robust and stable materials for extreme environments: space, underwater, and harsh terrestrial conditions
Dr Stefania Cacovich is currently a CNRS researcher working at IPVF. Her research activity lies in the field of the advanced characterization of hybrid and inorganic materials for photovoltaic applications by employing a multi-scale and multi-technique approach.
Her research into hybrid devices started during her doctoral studies (2014-2018), carried out at the Department of Materials Science of the University of Cambridge (UK) under the supervision of Prof Caterina Ducati. Her thesis focused on the study of the chemical, structural and morphological properties of hybrid organic-inorganic thin films and photovoltaic devices using advanced analytical electron microscopy techniques. In 2018, she moved to Paris for a postdoctoral research position at IPVF to work on multidimensional spectrally and time resolved photoluminescence imaging methods. From 2020-2022, she was Marie Curie Individual Post-doctoral fellow in Physics at CNRS (UMR 9006) with a project aimed at exploring the fundamental photophysical processes underlying the operation of advanced optoelectronic devices.
Aslihan BabayigitProf. Marina Freitag is a Professor of Energy and a Royal Society University Research Fellow at Newcastle University. She is developing new light-driven technologies that incorporate coordination polymers to solve the most important challenges in the research area, including issues of sustainability, stability and performance of hybrid PV. The development of such highly innovative concepts has given Marina international recognition, including recipient of the prestigious 2022 Royal Society of Chemistry Harrison-Meldola Memorial Prize 2022.
Her research into hybrid molecular devices, began during her doctoral studies (2007-2011, Rutgers University, NJ, USA) where she was awarded an Electrochemical Society Travel Award and Dean Dissertation Fellowship 2011. Dr Freitag moved to Uppsala University (2013-2015) for a postdoctoral research position, which focused on the implementation of alternative redox mediators, leading to a breakthrough today known as “zombie solar cells”. Dr Freitag was invited to further develop this work at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) with Prof. Anders Hagfeldt ( 2015-2016). From 2016-2020 she was appointed as Assistant Professor at Uppsala University, Sweden, where she received the Göran Gustaffsson Young Researcher Award 2019.
Aruna IvaturiMorten Madsen, Professor wsr at the University of Southern Denmark, SDU NanoSYD.
My field of expertise is thin-film growth, integration and devices for energy conversion and storage applications. In 2010-2011, I worked with high performance transistors from III-V nanoscale membranes at the Javey research lab, UC Berkeley, California. In 2011, I established the OPV group at SDU NanoSYD, where we work on improving the performance and stability of organic and hybrid solar cells, including thin film synthesis, metal oxide interlayers and interfaces, organic and hybrid active layers as well as film and device degradation. Since 2016, we also have a focus on device up-scaling through Roll-to-Roll (R2R) printing technology at the SDU R2R facility. Vist out site for more details:
https://www.sdu.dk/en/om_sdu/institutter_centre/c_nanosyd/forskningsomrader/organic+solar+cells