Michael Saliba wins Fraunhofer-UMSICHT institute Science Award
The Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety, and Energy Technology (UMSICHT) is part of the Fraunhofer Society that is the largest organization for Applied Science in Europe. Its mission is to “improve the standard of living and to promote the innovation capacity of the economy” by actively shaping energy transition and the shift towards raw materials. Working with industrial enterprises, service companies, and public authorities, Fraunhofer UMSICHT pioneers technical innovations in the fields of energy, processes, and products, and aims at advancing sustainable economies, environmentally friendly technologies, and innovative approaches.
Each year, Fraunhofer UMSICHT gives a Science Award “to people who make scientific results accessible to society on current topics in the fields of environmental, process and energy technology in an outstanding manner”. The Award includes an 8,000 EUR cash prize.
This year, Fraunhofer UMSICHT conferred the Science Award to Dr. Michael Saliba, who is a Marie Curie Fellow at EPFL. Saliba is being distinguished for his work towards perovskite/silicon tandems, which is part of his efforts to develop inexpensive, stable and highly efficient perovskite solar cells.
For the perovskite/silicon tandems, a perovskite layer is added on an existing silicon layer, thus combining two solar cells to achieve higher efficiencies. Perovskites convert light in the blue spectrum of sunlight, while silicon the red. “Together, perovskites and silicon are more than the sum of their parts and form a tandem that can transform the solar spectrum very efficiently into energy,” he says.
Unfortunately until now, perovskites are not stable under heat and moisture. To overcome this, Saliba has recently published a paper in Science where he uses polymeric protective barriers to improve outer stability, and increases the intrinsic perovskite stability by the targeted addition of inorganic salts. In this way, perovskite solar cell were operated at 85°C under full illumination for 500 hours at 95% of the initial conversion power.
“This surpasses even industrial requirements, and is a major breakthrough on the way to the commercialization of perovskite solar cells,” says Saliba. “I expect the combination of cost-effective perovskites with established silicon solar cells to revolutionize future photovoltaic technology.”
Saliba also won the 2016 Young Scientist Award of the Year from the Deutscher Hochschulverband and was listed recently on the TR35 “Innovators under 35” Award by the MIT Technology Review.