Publication

Photocatalytic ammonia production enhanced by a plasmonic near-field and hot electrons originating from aluminium nanostructures

Related publications (28)

III-N blue-emitting epi-structures with high densities of dislocations: Fundamental mechanisms for efficiency improvement and applications

Since the dawn of humanity, human beings seeked to light their surroundings for their well-being, security and development. The efficiency of ancient lighting devices, e.g. oil lamps or candles, was in the order of 0.03-0.04% and jumped to 0.4-0.6% with th ...

EPFL2024

Plasmonic Nanostructures for Photocatalysis: Material, Photonic and Electronic Effects

Fateme Kiani Shahvandi

Plasmonic photochemistry has a large potential to replace energy-intensive chemical processes with low-temperature, low-pressure light-driven chemical reactions. Plasmonic nanostructures have emerged as promising photocatalysts with exceptional and tunable ...

EPFL2024

Investigation of room-temperature single-photon emitters in GaN-based materials and GaN/AlN quantum dots

Johann Nicolaï Stachurski

Over the past decade, quantum photonics platforms aiming at harnessing the fundamental properties of single particles, such as quantum superposition and quantum entanglement, have flourished. In this context, single-photon emitters capable of operating at ...

EPFL2024

Study of growth-induced point defects and their impact on InGaN-based optoelectronic devices

Yao Chen

GaN exhibits a decomposition tendency for temperatures far below its melting point and common growth temperatures used in metal-organic vapour phase epitaxy (MOVPE).This characteristic is known to be a major obstacle for realising GaN bulk substrate. There ...

EPFL2024

Investigating Non-equilibrium Physics in Wide Bandgap Semiconductors and Quantum Materials via Ultrafast Spectroscopy

Hui-Yuan Chen

This thesis uses femtosecond laser spectroscopy in studying strong correlation in condensed matters that are pertinent to future technology: a wide bandgap perovskite and a quantum material, with the employment of ultrafast time-resolved spectroscopy in th ...

EPFL2024

Shortwave Infrared-Sensitive, Narrowband Organic Upconversion Devices with a Gain

Wei-Hsu Hu

Sensing and imaging of light in the shortwave infrared (SWIR) range is increasingly used in various fields, including bio-imaging, remote sensing, and semiconductor process control. SWIR-sensitive organic photodetectors (OPDs) are promising because organic ...

EPFL2024

In Situ Synthesis of CuxO/N Doped Graphdiyne with Pyridine N Configuration for Ammonia Production via Nitrate Reduction

Sophia Haussener, Roberto Valenza, Jian Li

Electroreduction of nitrate to ammonia provides an interesting pathway for wastewater treatment and valorization. Cu-based catalysts are active for the conversion of NO3− to NO2− but suffer from an inefficient hydrogenation process of NO2−. Herein, CuxO/N- ...

2024

Durable Perovskite Solar Cells with 24.5% Average Efficiency: The Role of Rigid Conjugated Core in Molecular Semiconductors

Michael Graetzel, Shaik Mohammed Zakeeruddin, Peng Wang, Felix Thomas Eickemeyer, Ming Ren

Efficient and robust n-i-p perovskite solar cells necessitate superior organic hole-transport materials with both mechanical and electronic prowess. Deciphering the structure-property relationship of these materials is crucial for practical perovskite sola ...

Wiley-V C H Verlag Gmbh2024

Assessing the Charge Carrier Dynamics at Hybrid Interfaces of Organic Photoanodes for Solar Fuels

Kevin Sivula, Yongpeng Liu, Han-Hee Cho, Alexander Wieczorek

Organic semiconductors (OSCs) have emerged as promising active layers for photoanodes to drive photoelectrochemical (PEC) oxidation reactions. Interfacing an OSC with an inorganic electron transport layer (ETL) is key to enabling both high performance and ...

Amer Chemical Soc2024

Phase-stable indium sulfide achieves an energy conversion efficiency of 14.3% for solar-assisted carbon dioxide reduction to formate

Michael Graetzel, Jingshan Luo, Xiaoyu Zhang, Jing Gao, Qixing Zhang, Jun Li

Tremendous efforts have been made in developing highly selective catalysts for electrochemical CO 2 conversion to formate. However, the rapid deactivation resulting from structural reconstruction and phase transition poses considerable challenges to the sy ...

Cell Press2024

Elimination of buried interfacial voids for efficient perovskite solar cells

Bo Chen, Bin Ding, Yan Liu, Xianfu Zhang

Establishing optimal interfacial contact is crucial for enhancing the efficiency of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However, formation of voids at buried interface of perovskite films often hinders this critical objective. Our investigation reveals that the ...

Elsevier2024

Green hydrogen production using Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 bioanode and cuprous oxide-based photocathode

Michele Morgante

In recent years, many efforts have been made to find alternative renewable energy sources that can ideally replace the use of fossil fuels in all aspects. One of the new emerging energy technologies is the bioelectrochemical system, of which two types are ...

EPFL2024

Mott physics in the multiflavored age

Frédéric Mila

The multiflavor Mott insulators, whose local Hilbert space consists of multiple degrees of freedom, occur widely in both quantum materials and ultracold atom systems. This Comment recommends the review article by Chen and Wu that is, to the author's knowle ...

Nature Portfolio2024

High-throughput parallel testing of ten photoelectrochemical cells for water splitting: case study on the effects of temperature in hematite photoanodes

Sophia Haussener, Isaac Thomas Holmes-Gentle, Roberto Valenza, Franky Esteban Bedoya Lora

High-throughput testing of photoelectrochemical cells and materials under well-defined operating conditions can accelerate the discovery of new semiconducting materials, the characterization of the phenomena occurring at the semiconductor-electrolyte inter ...

Royal Soc Chemistry2024

Microstructural and electrical characterization of high temperature passivating contacts for silicon solar cells

Sofia Libraro

Recombination at metal/semiconductor interfaces represents the main limitation in mainstream c-Si solar cells, primarily based on the passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC) concept. Full-area passivating contacts based on SiOx/poly-Si stacks are a candida ...

EPFL2024

Tailoring p-Type Behavior in ZnO Quantum Dots through Enhanced Sol–Gel Synthesis: Mechanistic Insights into Zinc Vacancies

Jacques-Edouard Moser, Andrea Cannizzo, Etienne Christophe Socie, Camila Bacellar Cases Da Silveira, Victoria Kabanova

The synthesis and control of properties of p-type ZnO is crucial for a variety of optoelectronic and spintronic applications; however, it remains challenging due to the control of intrinsic midgap (defect) states. In this study, we demonstrate a synthetic ...

2024

Hybrid organic/metal-oxide shells on semiconductor nanocrystals via colloidal atomic layer deposition

Ona Segura Lecina

The escalating energy demand and the imperative necessity to reduce the carbon footprint require transformative approaches to energy conversion. Materials chemistry plays a pivotal role in addressing these global challenges by developing novel materials fo ...

EPFL2024

Plasmonically enhanced molecular junctions for investigation of atomic-scale fluctuations in self-assembled monolayers

Sakthi Priya Amirtharaj

Molecular junctions represent a fascinating frontier in the realm of nanotechnology and are one of the smallest optoelectronic devices possible, consisting of individual molecules or a group of molecules that serve as the active element sandwiched between ...

EPFL2024

Machine Learning for Screening Small Molecules as Passivation Materials for Enhanced Perovskite Solar Cells

Mohammad Khaja Nazeeruddin, Bo Chen, Bin Ding, Chaohui Li, Yan Liu, Xianfu Zhang

Utilization of small molecules as passivation materials for perovskite solar cells (PSCs) has gained significant attention recently, with hundreds of small molecules demonstrating passivation effects. In this study, a high-accuracy machine learning model i ...

Wiley-VCH Verlag Gmbh2024

Ultra-high quantum coherent and scalable superconducting circuit optomechanics, from topological lattices to quantum storage

Amir Youssefi

Mechanical oscillators can exhibit modes with ultra-low energy dissipation and compact form factors due to the slow velocity of acoustic waves, and are already used in applications ranging from timing to wireless filters. Over the past decade, novel ways i ...

EPFL2024