Energy storage is one of the significant issues of our time. Photoelectrocatalysis can make a difference here. For example, solar batteries could simultaneously absorb, convert, store, and release sunlight.

In this basic research, finding suitable materials to ensure they work as efficiently as possible is essential. The scientists are delving deep into the nanocosmos and identifying properties that significantly impact performance. In this episode of the podcast “Exzellent erklärt” Prof. Thomas Bein and Dr. Johanna Eichhorn take us on a journey to the interfaces of materials that play a decisive role in using internal energy.

The experts
Prof. Thomas Bein holds the Chair of Physical Chemistry at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and is a member of the e-conversion Cluster of Excellence. One of Prof. Bein’s and his group’s goals is to develop environmentally friendly solar cells based on metal halide perovskites and related materials.

Dr. Johanna Eichhorn is a group leader at the Technical University of Munich and a member of the e-conversion Cluster of Excellence. Her research group aims to understand the conversion reactions of solar energy and the charge transport of multilayer photoelectrodes based on semiconductors.

The cluster
We must convert and store sun, wind, and water energy. The Cluster of Excellence e-conversion is researching the fundamentals of these processes so that both can run more efficiently in the future. Every conversion loses considerable energy at the interface between different materials. The enormous savings potential is a good reason to bring together the best experts in the e-conversion cluster. Around 55 scientists and their groups are based at TU Munich, LMU Munich, and Max Planck Institutes in Stuttgart, Berlin, and Mülheim an der Ruhr.

e-conversion – The first episode
The first episode of the cluster is about strong batteries for the energy transition and is from May 2022. Listen directly here.

The podcast
57 Clusters of Excellence, one podcast. “Exzellent Erklärt – Spitzenforschung für alle” reports regularly from one of the research networks that are funded within the framework of the Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments. The journey goes across the country, and the topics are just as diverse as the locations: From A for “Afrika Studien” to Z for “Zukunft der Medizin”.

Listen in!