ICN2 Project on Materials for Photovoltaics Funded Through Spanish Consolidation Grants

by Virginia Greco

Led by Senior Researcher Dr Sonia Ruiz Raga, CABIS-Sol will develop tailored semiconductor materials for photovoltaic and photoelectrochemical applications.

The Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and University has published the provisional resolution of the call for applications for the ‘Grants to Incentivise the Consolidation of Research 2023’ (Consolidación Investigadora) —within the framework of the ‘State Programme to Develop, Attract and Retain Talent’ of the ‘State Plan for Scientific, Technical and Innovation Research 2021-2023’, within the framework of the ‘Plan for Recovery, Transformation and Resilience’ (PERTE).

Among the projects selected for funding is CABIS-Sol (‘Development of Cu-Ag-Bi-I-S materials for SOLar energy conversion in photovoltaics and photoelectrochemistry’), which will be led by Dr Sonia Ruiz Raga, a senior researcher in the Nanostructured Materials for Photovoltaic Energy Group at the ICN2.

Thanks to this grant of more than €200,000, CABIS-Sol will develop a new semiconductor materials platform for renewable energy applications, in particular for photovoltaic and photoelectrochemical cells. The versatility of a particular metal halide system, copper-silver-bismuth iodosulphates (CABIS), will be exploited to design tailored materials exhibiting the desired optoelectronic properties.

This project has been selected within the strategic category “CHIPS”, in close connection with the Microelectronics and Semiconductors PERTE. The latter is a special plan of the Spanish Government that aims to strengthen the design and production capacities of the microelectronics and semiconductor industry in Spain, fostering national and EU strategic autonomy in this sector, in line with the recently proposed European Chip Law.