New solar cell developed

Decisive breakthrough for rapid energy transfer

23-Feb-2024 - Physicists at Paderborn University have used complex computer simulations to develop a new design for significantly more efficient solar cells than previously available. A thin layer of organic material, known as tetracene, is responsible for the increase in efficiency. The results have now been ...

Researchers are improving technology to generate high harmonics in nanostructured metasurfaces

22-May-2023 - Natural and artificial crystals can change the spectral colour of light – known as the nonlinear optical effect. Colour conversion is used for numerous applications, including nonlinear microscopy for biological structures and material examinations, LED light sources and lasers, in optical ...

International Research Team Develops Method to Characterize Nanomaterials

06-Apr-2023 - Researchers from Paderborn University, the Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica (INRiM),Italy’s national metrology institute, the Politecnico di Torino, Italy, and the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), National Metrology Institute of Germany, have studied sequential infiltration ...

New superacid: Substance converts harmful compounds into sustainable chemicals

Discovery could convert non-biodegradable fluorinated hydrocarbons and, in perspective, even climate-damaging greenhouse gases

28-Feb-2023 - Researchers at Paderborn University have succeeded in producing very special catalysts, known as “Lewis superacids”, which can be used to break strong chemical bonds and speed up reactions. The production of these substances has, until now, proven extremely difficult. The chemists’ discovery ...

Scientists discover new chemical reaction

06-Jun-2022 - “Finding something so novel that it might be included in textbooks as fundamental knowledge is every scientist’s dream,” says Prof. Dr. Jan Paradies, a professor at Paderborn University. Paradies, a chemist, recently discovered a previously unprecedented reaction in which an entire molecular ...

Sauerkraut, light and crystals

Researchers want to develop new bioplastic for use in optical technologies

25-Oct-2021 - Scientists at the University of Paderborn, Hamm-Lippstadt University of Applied Sciences and the Aachen-Maastricht Institute for Biobased Materials (AMIBM) are researching new environmentally friendly plastic products based on lactic acid. The aim is to develop sustainable materials for optical ...

Just a few atoms thick: New functional materials developed

Using the smallest "construction set" in the world, a research team is designing new materials for computer chips, light-emitting diodes and solar cells

10-May-2021 - They are 50,000 times thinner than a human hair, and just a few atoms thick: two-dimensional materials are the thinnest substances it is possible to make today. They have completely new properties and are regarded as the next major step in modern semiconductor technology. In the future they could ...

New study reveals first fundamental insights into ion transport mechanisms

Results may contribute to the future development of more efficient battery types

08-Oct-2020 - Ionic conductors transport electric current. One simple application of this process is the common battery which uses a salt bridge to connect two electrolyte solutions. Conductors are also used in other forms of electrochemical energy storage for example when ions pass from one electrode to ...

Computers Made of Genetic Material?

Researchers conduct electricity using DNA-based nanowires

10-Nov-2016 - Tinier than the AIDS virus – that is currently the circumference of the smallest transistors. The industry has shrunk the central elements of their computer chips to fourteen nanometers in the last sixty years. Conventional methods, however, are hitting physical boundaries. Researchers around the ...