National Research Council, Institute of Materials for Electronics and Magnetism (IMEM-CNR) – Italy
by Miriam de Angelis | Jul 31, 2019
ORGANISATION
Name of the Organisation: National Research Council, Institute of Materials for Electronics and Magnetism
Organisation Short Name: IMEM-CNR
Organisation Type: REC
Country: Italy
ACTIVITY
Topic(s) of interest from 2018-2019 Transport Work Programme:- LC-MG-1-13-2020: Decarbonising long distance shipping
Fields of Activity: IMEM develops interdisciplinary research approaches in materials science, complementing refined methods of growth, synthesis and study of materials with theoretical modeling and prototyping of devices. The latter conceived with the aim of exploring and demonstrating (multi-) functional properties, implementing and developing applications and opening innovative technological perspectives. The main strategic lines are focused on materials, processes and devices for energy, sensors, bioelectronics and nanomedicine. The main activities are aimed at the growth / synthesis, study and control of multi-functional properties of new generation materials, including: materials, systems and magnetic devices, semiconductors and superconductors; nanostructures and functionalization processes and multi-functionalization for energy, sensors, bioelectronics and nanomedicine; molecular systems and organic / inorganic hybrid materials engineered to different length scales; nanostructures on metal surfaces; semiconductor nanostructures at quantum dots (QDot). Relevant is the industrial research activity carried out in cooperation with companies and the technological transfer starting from the regional scale in which it is co-founder of the AMBIMAT Technopole and the MISTER consortium.
Skills and Experise Offered: Research of new materials and development of proof-of-principle devices for energy: harvesting from vibrations and heat, integrated photovoltaics.
In detail:
• test devices for converting vibrations into electricity based on the deformation of hydrogels (reverse electrowetting mechanism), to be developed as portable generators and/or wearable devices for powering small electronics (e.g. standalone sensors). This technology is suitable for harvesting energy from small force, low frequency movements such as the humans’ ones
• Methods for deposition of semiconducting/piezoelectric nanostructures on carbon fibres and textiles. The composite transduce deformation into electric signals
• Miniaturized piezoelectric lithographic devices (CMOS compatible) for converting vibrations into electricity, to be integrated into standalone microdevices (small sensors)
• Magnetoelastic materials (magnetostrictive and magnetic shape memory alloys) which could be useful to convert vibrations into electricity. The underlying mechanism is compatible with scalability and makes these interesting for harvesting in marine environment (waves, tides, currents). These materials have one order of magnitude higher energy density than piezoelectrics.
• Magnetocaloric materials for converting dispersed heat into electricity. This technology could be in principle scalable towards medium size devices (kWatts) and can work in small temperature spans (few tens of °C) which are now dissipated into the environment
• Magnetocalorics could be used also as cooling elements for refrigerators and heat pumps without the need for refrigerant gasses
• Long lasting (12 years) activity on CIGS-based thin film solar cells (efficiency > 17%). The development of the low temperature pulsed electron deposition technique (LT-PED) allows the use of thermolabile, flexible substrate and the realization of unconventional solutions (bi-facial solar cells) for the emerging field of BIPV/PIPV (building/product integrated PV)
Keywords: Energy harvesting, vibration to electricity, heat to electricity, wearable devices, MEMS, carbon fibre composites, magnetocaloric refrigeration, magnetostriction, thin films, photovoltaics
Previous FP Projects Participated: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/how-to-participate/org-details/999979500;searchKeyword=;searchTopic=;searchTopicName=;call=;searchProgramme=;searchProgrammeName=null;legalName=CNR;organisationType=;country=;city=;pic=;countryAbbreviation=
CONTACT
Contact Person: Andrea Zappettini
Position in the Organisation: Director
Telephone: +390521269296
Email: andrea.zappettini@imem.cnr.it
URL: www.imem.cnr.it
