Postdoctoral Fellowship, Chemistry Institute

Posting Expiry

 

POSTDOCTORAL POSITION AVAILABLE FROM 2019 - UNESP / Brazil

There is one postdoctoral position available within the project “High-performance plastic fiber luminescent solar concentrators for flexible waveguiding photovoltaics (SolarFlex)” as part of a collaboration between the Laboratory of Photonic Materials at the Institute of Chemistry of the São Paulo State University (UNESP), Brazil, and the Photonic Hybrids and Nanomaterials Group, phantom-g (http://hybrids.web.ua.pt/) of the University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal.

The grant includes a monthly payment of R$ 7400 (around USD 1900), exempt of taxes, for 24 months, air tickets for those who live outside the state of São Paulo (including abroad), and ancillary funds for covering research costs such as consumables and for participation in conferences related to this project.

This position is associated with the group of Prof. Sidney J.L. Ribeiro (ORCID- 0000-0003-3286-9440; Research ID- E-9864-2012) at the Institute of Chemistry of UNESP, a leading research institution in Brazil and Latin America equipped with state-of-the-art facilities for research and funded by Brazilian Government funding Agencies. The Institute of Chemistry is located at Araraquara, ~280km from São Paulo.

We are seeking highly motivated young researchers (with a PhD degree obtained after 2012) with background in Chemistry or related areas, experience in the field of photonic materials (lanthanide, luminescente dyes or quantum dots containing materials) supported by a strong publication record. Previous experience in interdisciplinary projects is highly commended to engage in this ambitious project.

TO APPLY

Candidates should send a brief motivation letter describing the candidate experience relevant to the topic, an outline proposing ideas for the project, a detailed CV and two recommendation letters to sidney.jl.ribeiro@unesp.br (copy to denise-fray.correia@unesp.br), before April 30. This project is expected to begin as soon as the selection is finished.

Project outline

Meter length, lightweight and flexible optically active poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) optical fibers will be used as cylindrical luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) with unprecedented concentration factors (F>10). PMMA optical fibers coated (bulk fibers) or filled (hollow-core fibers) with luminescente species (lanthanide ions- or dye-or quantum dots-containing organic-inorganic hybrid layers) will be fabricated and assembled in bundles. To demonstrate the potential of the proposed approach, two prototypes will be produced by coupling i) long-meter LSC and ii) LSC bundles to commercial Si PV cells. The Si PV cells figure of merit (external quantum efficiency, EQE) will be accessed. The LSCs will display an unprecedented F values one order of magnitude higher than the largest values reported so far. Conventional LSCs are usually made of rigid glass or plastics with limited flexibility, hampering its applicability. The approach proposed here has, therefore, a large potential to be a real breakthrough on the development of lightweight and mechanically flexible high-performance waveguiding photovoltaic.

Relevant references:

  1. A.R.Frias et al, Sustainable luminescent solar concentrators based on organic–inorganic hybrids modified with chlorophyll, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2018,6, 8712-8723
  2. S. F. H. Correia et al., Large-Area Tunable Visible-to-Near-Infrared Luminescent Solar Concentrators, Adv. Sustainable Syst. 2018, 2, 1800002.
  3. S. F. H. Correia et al., Scale up the collection area of luminescent solar concentrators towards metre-length flexible waveguiding photovoltaics, Prog. Photovolt: Res. Appl. 2016; 24:1178–1193