Nanostructured Materials for Photovoltaic Energy

Group Leader: Mónica Lira-Cantú

Mónica Lira-Cantú

CSIC Research Scientist

Group Leader

After completing a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry in 1992, Dr Monica Lira-Cantu obtained her Master’s and PhD degrees in Materials Science at the Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB) and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in 1995 and 1997, respectively. She worked as a postdoctoral fellow with Schneider Electric and ICMAB until 1998. From 1999 to 2001 she was a permanent senior staff chemist at ExxonMobil Research & Engineering (formerly Mobil Technology Co) in New Jersey (USA), establishing a group on energy-related applications.

Besides her role as leader of the ICN2 Nanostructured Materials for Photovoltaic Energy Group, she is currently a visiting professor at the Laboratory of Photomolecular Science (LSPM) of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.

Dr Lira-Cantu has received various awards, as well as visiting scientist fellowships at the following laboratories: Universitetet i Oslo (Norway) (ESF, 2003), RisDTU Nationallaboratoriet (Denmark) (AGAUR, 2004/05) and the Center for Advanced Science and Innovation (Osaka University, Japan) (Canon Foundation in Europe, 2006). She obtained a permanent position in 2007 at the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) and established the ICN2 Photovoltaic Energy Group.

Since then she has directly hosted and led more than 60 researchers, including visiting professors, postdoctoral students, PhD students (four in progress), Masters and undergraduate students (over 32), project managers and technicians. She has been the principal investigator of several national, industrial and european projects, and is the main coordinator of a COST Action, involving more than 470 partners from 35 countries and 22 companies, to study the stability of organic and perovskite solar cells.

She has coordinated and organised over 15 scientific conferences and is currently a scientific referee for more than 15 international and European research agencies, and 52 scientific journals. She is a member of the editorial board of SN Applied Science (Nature), Journal of Materials Chemistry C (RSC), Journal of Physics Energy (IOP), Journal of Photonics for Energy (SPIE) and Frontiers in Energy Research: Solar Energy (Frontiers). She is a member of the advisory board for the Nanotechnology and Chemical Science degree (INCQ) of the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (Mexico).

Her research interests lie in the synthesis and application of nanostructured materials for high efficient and high stable next-generation thin-film solar cells: halide-perovskite, dye-sensitised, alloxide and organic solar cells. Currently, the group has developed halide perovskite solar cells with > 21% efficiency and 1000 h stability under continuous illumination. The group also focuses on the application of solar cells in printed battery-less, self-powered electronics for the IoT (on flexible, transparent and/or smart materials).

Dr Lira-Cantú has more than 120 publications, among them 96 published papers, 9 patents and 10 book chapters, 1 edited book and several technical reports (h index 41, Google Scholar)

Publications

2020

2019

  • Boosting Photoelectrochemical Water Oxidation of Hematite in Acidic Electrolytes by Surface State Modification

    Tang P.-Y., Han L.-J., Hegner F.S., Paciok P., Biset-Peiró M., Du H.-C., Wei X.-K., Jin L., Xie H.-B., Shi Q., Andreu T., Lira-Cantú M., Heggen M., Dunin-Borkowski R.E., López N., Galán-Mascarós J.R., Morante J.R., Arbiol J. Advanced Energy Materials; 9 (34, 1901836) 2019. 10.1002/aenm.201901836. IF: 24.884

  • Giant bulk photovoltaic effect in solar cell architectures with ultra-wide bandgap Ga2O3 transparent conducting electrodes

    Pérez-Tomás A., Chikoidze E., Dumont Y., Jennings M.R., Russell S.O., Vales-Castro P., Catalan G., Lira-Cantú M., Ton –That C., Teherani F.H., Sandana V.E., Bove P., Rogers D.J. Materials Today Energy; 14 (100350) 2019. 10.1016/j.mtener.2019.100350. IF: 0.000

  • Impact of P3HT materials properties and layer architecture on OPV device stability

    Meitzner R., Faber T., Alam S., Amand A., Roesch R., Büttner M., Herrmann-Westendorf F., Presselt M., Ciammaruchi L., Visoly-Fisher I., Veenstra S., Diaz de Zerio A., Xu X., Wang E., Müller C., Troshin P., Hager M.D., Köhn S., Dusza M., Krassas M., Züfle S., Kymakis E., Katz E.A., Berson S., Granek F., Manceau M., Brunetti F., Polino G., Schubert U.S., Lira-Cantu M., Hoppe H. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells; 202 (110151) 2019. 10.1016/j.solmat.2019.110151. IF: 6.019

  • PbZrTiO 3 ferroelectric oxide as an electron extraction material for stable halide perovskite solar cells

    Pérez-Tomas A., Xie H., Wang Z., Kim H.-S., Shirley I., Turren-Cruz S.-H., Morales-Melgares A., Saliba B., Tanenbaum D., Saliba M., Zakeeruddin S.M., Gratzel M., Hagfeldt A., Lira-Cantu M. Sustainable Energy and Fuels; 3 (2): 382 - 389. 2019. 10.1039/c8se00451j. IF: 4.912

  • Towards Oxide Electronics: a Roadmap

    Coll M., Fontcuberta J., Althammer M., Bibes M., Boschker H., Calleja A., Cheng G., Cuoco M., Dittmann R., Dkhil B., El Baggari I., Fanciulli M., Fina I., Fortunato E., Frontera C., Fujita S., Garcia V., Goennenwein S.T.B., Granqvist C.-G., Grollier J., Gross R., Hagfeldt A., Herranz G., Hono K., Houwman E., Huijben M., Kalaboukhov A., Keeble D.J., Koster G., Kourkoutis L.F., Levy J., Lira-Cantu M., MacManus-Driscoll J.L., Mannhart J., Martins R., Menzel S., Mikolajick T., Napari M., Nguyen M.D., Niklasson G., Paillard C., Panigrahi S., Rijnders G., Sánchez F., Sanchis P., Sanna S., Schlom D.G., Schroeder U., Shen K.M., Siemon A., Spreitzer M., Sukegawa H., Tamayo R., van den Brink J., Pryds N., Granozio F.M. Applied Surface Science; 482: 1 - 93. 2019. 10.1016/j.apsusc.2019.03.312. IF: 5.155

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

  • Solution processable titanium dioxide precursor and nanoparticulated ink: Application in Dye Sensitized Solar Cells

    Bosch-Jimenez, P.; Yu, Y.; Lira-Cantu, M.; Domingo, C.; Ayllón, J.A. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science; 416: 112 - 118. 2014. 10.1016/j.jcis.2013.11.013. IF: 3.552

  • Worldwide outdoor round robin study of organic photovoltaic devices and modules

    Madsen, M.V.; Gevorgyan, S.A.; Pacios, R.; Ajuria, J.; Etxebarria, I.; Kettle, J.; Bristow, N.D.; Neophytou, M.; Choulis, S.A.; Stolz Roman, L.; Yohannes, T.; Cester, A.; Cheng, P.; Zhan, X.; Wu, J.; Xie, Z.; Tu, W.-C.; He, J.-H.; Fell, C.J.; Anderson, K.; Hermenau, M.; Bartesaghi, D.; Jan Anton Koster, L.; Machui, F.; González-Valls, I.; Lira-Cantu, M.; Khlyabich, P.P.; Thompson, B.C.; Gupta, R.; Shanmugam, K.; Kulkarni, G.U.; Galagan, Y.; Urbina, A.; Abad, J.; Roesch, R.; Hoppe, H.; Morvillo, P.; Bobeico, E.; Panaitescu, E.; Menon, L.; Luo, Q.; Wu, Z.; Ma, C.; Hambarian, A.; Melikyan, V.; Hambsch, M.; Burn, P.L.; Meredith, P.; Rath, T.; Dunst, S.; Trimmel, G.; Bardizza, G.; Müllejans, H.; Goryachev, A.E.; Misra, R.K.; Katz, E.A.; Takagi, K.; Magaino, S.; Saito, H.; Aoki, D.; Sommeling, P.M.; Kroon, J.M.; Vangerven, T.; Manca, J.; Kesters, J.; Maes, W.; Bobkova, O.D.; Trukhanov, V.A.; Paraschuk, D.Y.; Castro, F.A.; Blakesley, J.; Tuladhar, S.M.; Alexander Röhr, J.; Nelson, J.; Xia, J.; Parlak, E.A.; Tumay, T.A.; Egelhaaf, H.-J.; Tanenbaum, D.M.; Mae Ferguson, G.; Carpenter, R.; Chen, H.; Zimmermann, B.; Hirsch, L.; Wantz, G.; Sun, Z.; Singh, P.; Bapat, C.; Offermans, T.; Krebs, F.C. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells; 130: 281 - 290. 2014. 10.1016/j.solmat.2014.07.021. IF: 5.030

2013

2012

  • Combined characterization techniques to understand the stability of a variety of organic photovoltaic devices - The ISOS-3 interlaboratory collaboration

    Lira-Cantu, M.; Tanenbaum, D.M.; Norrman, K.; Voroshazi, E.; Hermenau, M.; Lloyd, M.T.; Teran-Escobar, G.; Galagan, Y.; Zimmermann, B.; Hösel, M.; Dam, H.F.; Jørgensen, M.; Gevorgyan, S.; Lutsen, L.; Vanderzande, D.; Hoppe, H.; Rösch, R.; Würfel, U.; Andriessen, R.; Rivaton, A.; Uzunoglu, G.Y.; Germack, D.; Andreasen, B.; Madsen, M.V.; Bundgaard, E.; Krebs, F.C. Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering; 8472: 847203. 2012. doi:10.1117/12.929579.

  • Enhanced light extraction in ITO-free OLEDs using double-sided printed electrodes

    Reboud, V.; Khokhar, A.Z.; Sepúlveda, B.; Dudek, D.; Kehoe, T.; Cuffe, J.; Kehagias, N.; Lira-Cantu, M.; Gadegaard, N.; Grasso, V.; Lambertini, V.; Sotomayor Torres, C.M. Nanoscale; 4 (11): 3495 - 3500. 2012. .

  • Hydrothermal synthesis of 1D TiO2 nanostructures for dye sensitized solar cells

    Tacchini, I.; Ansón-Casaos, A.; Yu, Y.; Martínez, M.T.; Lira-Cantu, M. Materials Science & Engineering B: Solid-State Materials for Advanced Technology; 177: 19 - 26. 2012. 10.1016/j.mseb.2011.09.024.

  • Investigation of the degradation mechanisms of a variety of organic photovoltaic devices by combination of imaging techniques - The ISOS-3 inter-laboratory collaboration

    Rösch, R.; Tanenbaum, D.M.; Jørgensen, M.; Seeland, M.; Bärenklau, M.; Hermenau, M.; Voroshazi, E.; Lloyd, M.T.; Galagan, Y.; Zimmermann, B.; Würfel, U.; Hösel, M.; Dam, H.F.; Gevorgyan, S.A.; Kudret, S.; Maes, W.; Lutsen, L.; Vanderzande, D.; Andriessen, R.; Teran-Escobar, G.; Lira-Cantu, M.; Rivaton, A.; Uzunoglu, G.Y.; Germack, D.; Andreasen, B.; Madsen, M.V.; Norrman, K.; Hoppe, H.; Krebs, F.C. Energy and Environmental Sciences; 5: 6521 - 6540. 2012. 10.1039/c2ee03508a.

  • New D-Ï€-A-conjugated organic sensitizers based on 4 H-pyran-4-ylidene donors for highly efficient dye-sensitized solar cells

    Franco, S.; Garín, J.; Martínez De Baroja, N.; Pérez-Tejada, R.; Orduna, J.; Yu, Y.; Lira-Cantú, M. Organic Letters; 14: 752 - 755. 2012. 10.1021/ol203298r.

  • On the stability of a variety of organic photovoltaic devices by IPCE and in situ IPCE analyses - The ISOS-3 inter-laboratory collaboration

    Teran-Escobar, G.; Tanenbaum, D.M.; Voroshazi, E.; Hermenau, M.; Norrman, K.; Lloyd, M.T.; Galagan, Y.; Zimmermann, B.; Hösel, M.; Dam, H.F.; Jorgensen, M.; Gevorgyan, S.; Kudret, S.; Maes, W.; Lutsen, L.; Vanderzande, D.; Würfel, U.; Andriessen, R.; Rösch, R.; Hoppe, H.; Rivaton, A.; Uzunoglu, G.Y.; Germack, D.; Andreasen, B.; Madsen, M.V.; Bundgaard, E.; Krebs, F.C.; Lira-Cantu, M. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics; 14: 11824 - 11845. 2012. 10.1039/c2cp40821j.

  • Solution processable TiO 2 nanoparticles capped with lauryl gallate

    Bosch-Jimenez, P.; Lira-Cantu, M.; Domingo, C.; Ayllón, J.A. Materials Letters; 89: 296. 2012. .

  • Stability and degradation of organic photovoltaics fabricated, aged, and characterized by the ISOS 3 inter-laboratory collaboration

    Tanenbaum, D.M.; Hermenau, M.; Voroshazi, E.; Lloyd, M.T.; Galagan, Y.; Zimmermann, B.; Hösel, M.; Dam, H.F.; Jørgensen, M.; Gevorgyan, S.; Kudret, S.; Maes, W.; Lutsen, L.; Vanderzande, D.; Würfel, U.; Andriessen, R.; Rösch, R.; Hoppe, H.; Lira-Cantu, M.; Teran-Escobar, G.; Dupuis, A.; Bussière, P.O.; Rivaton, A.; Uzunoglu, G.Y.; Germack, D.; Andreasen, B.; Madsen, M.V.; Norrman, K.; Bundgaard, E.; Krebs, F.C. Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering; 8477: 847704. 2012. doi:10.1117/12.930451 .

  • The ISOS-3 inter-laboratory collaboration focused on the stability of a variety of organic photovoltaic devices

    Tanenbaum, D.M.; Hermenau, M.; Voroshazi, E.; Lloyd, M.T.; Galagan, Y.; Zimmermann, B.; Hösel, M.; Dam, H.F.; Jørgensen, M.; Gevorgyan, S.A.; Kudret, S.; Maes, W.; Lutsen, L.; Vanderzande, D.; Würfel, U.; Andriessen, R.; Rösch, R.; Hoppe, H.; Teran-Escobar, G.; Lira-Cantu, M.; Rivaton, A.; Uzunolu, G.Y.; Germack, D.; Andreasen, B.; Madsen, M.V.; Norrman, K.; Krebs, F.C. RSC Advances; 2: 882 - 893. 2012. 10.1039/c1ra00686j.

  • The use of polyurethane as encapsulating method for polymer solar cells - An inter laboratory study on outdoor stability in 8 countries

    Sÿndergaard R.R.; Makris, T.; Lianos, P.; Manor, A.; Katz, E.A.; Gong, W.; Tuladhar, S.M.; Nelson, J.; Tuomi, R.; Sommeling, P.; Veenstra, S.C.; Rivaton, A.; Dupuis, A.; Teran-Escobar, G.; Lira-Cantu, M.; Sapkota, S.B.; Zimmermann, B.; Wÿrfel, U.; Matzarakis, A.; Krebs, F.C. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells; 99: 292. 2012. .

  • TOF-SIMS investigation of degradation pathways occurring in a variety of organic photovoltaic devices - The ISOS-3 inter-laboratory collaboration

    Andreasen, B.; Tanenbaum, D.M.; Hermenau, M.; Voroshazi, E.; Lloyd, M.T.; Galagan, Y.; Zimmernann, B.; Kudret, S.; Maes, W.; Lutsen, L.; Vanderzande, D.; Würfel, U.; Andriessen, R.; Rösch, R.; Hoppe, H.; Teran-Escobar, G.; Lira-Cantu, M.; Rivaton, A.; Uzunoglu, G.Y.; Germack, D.S.; Hösel, M.; Dam, H.F.; Jorgensen, M.; Gevorgyan, S.A.; Madsen, M.V.; Bundgaard, E.; Krebs, F.C.; Norrman, K. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics; 14: 11780 - 11799. 2012. 10.1039/c2cp41787a.

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

  • Hybrid materials based on Vanadyl Phosphate and Conducting Polymers as Cathodes in Rechargeable Lithium Cells.

    A. Karina Cuentas-Gallegos; R. Vijayaraghavan; Mónica Lira-Cantú; Nieves Casañ-Pastor; Pedro Gómez-Romero Boletin de la Sociedad Espanola de Ceramica y Vidrio; 43 (2): 429 - 433. 2004. .