Energy-related Courses

Nanomaterials & Energy

Semester: 
Fall
Master-level course of the Bioenergy program

Main topics:

  • Environmental challenges and materials needs for energy transition
  • Working principles, fabrication and characterization of solar cells
  • Dimensioning and projection of photovoltaic plus storage systems
  • Principles of energy harvesting from motion and nanogenerators
  • Practical group projects on characterization and fabrication of solar cells, dimensioning of energy systems, environmental case studies

Photovoltaic Energy: Materials & Applications

Semester: 
Fall
4th-5th year course of the Department of Materials Science

Main topics:

  • Physical principles of photovoltaic (PV) solar-to-electricity conversion
  • Traditional (wafer-based) and emerging (thin-film) PV technologies
  • Novel solar cell concepts as photonics for light-trapping and quantum-structured semiconductors
  • Electrical storage in batteries and (super)capacitors
  • Practical group projects on characterization and computational simulation of solar cells, as well as dimensioning of PV + storage systems.

Materials for Energy Conversion and Storage

Semester: 
Spring
4th-5th year course of the Department of Materials Science

Main topics:

  • Present energetic challenges, sustainability aims
  • Solar electricity - fundaments, production and novel materials (e.g. Perovskite cells)
  • Electrochemical storage in Batteries, Capacitors and Solar Fuels
  • PV systems dimensioning with storage, and power management
  • Energy harvesting from heat (solar thermal) and from motion
  • Practical group projects on fabrication, characterization and dimensioning of solar systems

Photonics in Materials

Semester: 
Spring
2nd year course of the Department of Materials Science.

Main Topics:

  • Applied geometric and wave optics
  • Introduction to quantum mechanics and light-matter interaction
  • Principles of solid-state physics
  • Practical applications of photonics and current technologies under development
  • Computational simulation of light-trapping in thin-film solar cells
  • Laboratory on synthesis and analysis of quantum dots for nanotechnology applications