Materials scientist Prof Dr Oana Cojocaru-Mirédin of the University of Freiburg has been awarded a Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). With this grant, the European Union (EU) is funding her research project on the properties of what are known as grain boundaries in crystalline materials, such as those used for solar cells. The grant is among the most prestigious funding programmes for scientists in the EU. It provides almost two million euros for a five-year period. This year, the ERC has accepted around 300 of the more than 2,300 funding applications submitted in Europe.
Targeted material design strategy
In their funded project "ProGB - Property Transformation of Grain Boundaries", Cojocaru-Mirédin and her team are focussing on the question of how properties of grain boundaries in certain crystalline materials can be changed. "This task is challenging, but also offers great opportunities," says Cojocaru-Mirédin. "Up to now, targeted alteration of grain boundary properties has frequently not been possible," she adds.
The researchers will work with correlative microscopy, meaning they will combine different microscopy techniques. "The aim of the project is to develop a rational and targeted material design strategy that starts at the grain boundaries," says Cojocaru-Mirédin. The scientist has been working to gain understanding of these for around a decade; she has already contributed significant results on the correlation between structure and chemistry at the grain boundary level, for example.
Benefits for new technologies
Cojocaru-Mirédin says the project will significantly deepen knowledge of property correlations – therefore serving applied research as well. "The results of our project can contribute to further development of cost-effective thin-film solar cells with polycrystalline materials as well as be of great benefit for new technologies such as tandem and ultra-thin-film solar cells," she explains.
Cojocaru-Mirédin holds the Eva Mayr-Stihl Professorship for Cross-Scale Material Characterisation at the Institute for Sustainable Systems Engineering (INATECH) of the University of Freiburg. Her research focuses on, among other things, atom probe tomography, which she uses to analyse the atomic composition and materials' properties, as well as the redesign of sustainable energy materials.
