Photocharging materials, light driven ionics and their applications in energy conversion & storage

Inorganic and organic based materials and devices functioning with optoionic effects or photocharging properties have emerged recently. Understanding of underlying mechanisms and tailoring of new materials are highly relevant for diverse energy-based approaches, including solar-cells and -batteries, photoelectrochemistry and -catalysis

Scope:

The demand for renewable energy conversion technologies increases, but is limited by expensive or complex technologies enabling storage for on-demand use. In parallel, energy consumption for IT applications and computation is increasing. Also, wearable devices allowing for sensing and information processing are being developed rapidly and implemented in our daily life, requiring power supply while operating remotely. The emerging field of light driven ionics, coupling light absorption to ion transport and transfer processes has the potential to offers solution to many of those challenges. This applies not only to integrated technologies where photoabsorbers and ionic technologies operate in tandem, but even more so if both or more functions can become combined within tailored materials – potentially being more efficient, easier to fabricate and to implement.
Examples of such technologies include organic and inorganic photocharging materials, which can soak the energy of light and accumulate it intrinsically by modified redox states, typically going in hand with ions. If sufficiently stable and triggerable, they can be used to provide electrical energy on demand, or to drive electrochemical energy conversion processes e.g.
Ionic material property modifications occurring in materials affect e.g. color or band gap, conductivity (electric, ionic, themal), the material phase or composition, the charge distribution and overall stability. This can become important not only for device operation, efficiency and lifetime, but also for performing several tasks at once. Since optoionic property modifications are typically gradual in their strength and can be analyzed, they enable a broad range of sensing, information processing and especially light driven information storage possibilities.
This symposium will provide a new platform for researchers working on light driven ionic effects across different disciplines. The symposium covers, but is not limited to, experimental and theoretical studies of related materials and mechanisms, aspects affecting kinetics and thermodynamics through material structure and environment, and application examples in areas related to energy, catalysis, robotics, information processing or storage, as well as environmental and biomedical aspects.

Hot topics to be covered by the symposium:

• Solar batteries, photo-capacitors and related integrated technologies for light energy storage
• Time-delayed (dark) photocatalysis for decoupled and tailored solar energy conversion, fuel production and photosynthesis
• Optoionic effects in solar cells and related materials
• Materials and fundamental studies on mechanisms enabling photocharging and optoionics
• Light-driven information storage, processing and sensing related to ionic effects
• Organic photoelectrochemical transistors (OPECTs)
• Light driven ion transport related to environmental, biological and biomedical applications
• Light-driven micro- and nano-machines related to ionics