CINBIO participates in the creation of two devices set to shape the future of solar energy

The University of Vigo’s Centre for Research in Nanomaterials and Biomedicine (CINBIO), a member of the CIGUS Network, an initiative launched by the regional government (Xunta de Galicia) that groups together centres of accredited scientific excellence, is one of the nine entities selected to participate in the European consortium Adaptation, financed with 3.6 million euros of Pathfinder aid from the European Union. The main objective is to create new devices that will shape the future of solar energy. The project is inspired by the most efficient natural energy management processes on Earth: photosynthesis and terrestrial radiative cooling.

The project got underway this month and Vigo is participating through CINBIO’s Functional NanoBioMaterials Group (FunNanoBio), led by full professor Isabel Pastoriza Santos, who explained that her research group will be contributing their extensive experience in Colloidal Chemistry and Materials to this project. “Our principal task will be to develop particles based on pigments and dyes capable of capturing solar energy and with a reflection capacity. These particles will then be used to manufacture sustainable devices that generate electricity and regulate their temperature”, explained this professor from Faculty of Chemistry, who has more than 20 years’ research experience in the design and application of nanostructured materials and has obtained significant achievements in the synthesis of gold and silver nanoparticles using colloidal chemistry.

Suitable for all types of surfaces and adaptable to the whole of Europe

Coordinated by the University of Minho and with partners from five countries – Portugal, Spain, France, Austria and the Netherlands –, Adaptation will contribute to achieving a clean and resilient economy in the face of climate change by producing the first light-capturing material suitable for all types of surfaces and adaptable to all geographical areas of Europe.

Ahead lie four years of work in which the idea is to create a series of devices that absorb solar energy in order to convert it into electricity and at the same time can self-cool in order to prevent energy loss. To achieve this, work will be carried out on the molecular level in the same way as the natural photosynthetic tissue is organised in order to generate new materials that will form the basis of the devices. These future devices will be made up of various nanometric structures with the necessary energy absorption and transfer properties, as well as thermal control.

New entities from five countries

Adaptation is financed with EU Pathfinder funds for disruptive project that support development in the initial phases of future technologies, based on high-risk research and high gain technology.

In this case, nine entities from five countries are involved: the University of Minho and the Iberian International Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL) in Portugal; the University of Vigo, the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the companies Avanzare Innovation Tecnológica, SL and Cooling Photonics in Spain; the University of Strasbourg in France; Utrecht University in the Netherlands; and the company Sunplugged-solare Energiesysteme in Austria.

The project’s PI is the Galician researcher Sara Núñez Sánchez, an expert in Nanophotonics. Following a number of international research stays (Bristol, Exeter…), until 2023 Sara was a member of CINBIO’s research team, where she worked with Isabel Pastoriza on a number of research projects, including Catarsis, also aimed at “developing the principles of a new solar energy capture technology inspired by nature, specifically the way photosynthesis captures and transfers energy”.