The students will be introduced to the fundamental concepts of charge transport in solar cells, batteries, and electrolysers. Emphasizing analogies between semiconductor physics and electrochemistry, this course is designed to provide a unified modern perspective of energy conversion and storage concepts for students in electrical engineering, materials science, physics, and chemistry.
Learning objective
By the end of this course, the students will (1) understand the fundamentals of electronic and ionic charge transport, (2) understand the operational principles of solar cells, batteries, and electrolysers, and (3) understand fundamental limits for each device type. In addition, the students will learn how to simulate these devices during guided exercise sessions and develop an intuitive understanding on how to interpret the most important device characteristics.
Literature
P. Würfel, Physics of Solar Cells: From Principles to New Concepts, DOI:10.1002/9783527618545 J. Newman, Electrochemical Systems, ISBN 978-1-119-51460-2 R. Huggins, Advanced Batteries, DOI:10.1007/9780387764245
Prerequisites / Notice
Be motivated to change the world to renewable energies!
This course is taught simultaneously at ETH Zurich and EPFL. All lectures will be recorded by zoom and made available to the students. Lectures will be streamed live from ETH Zurich with four lectures taught onsite at EPFL Lausanne.
A visit to Empa's Energy Conversion and Storage Labs will be organized during the semester. Possibility to interact and meet your classmates from EPFL via online lecture platform and during two special lectures with guest lecturers from industry (one guest lecture by ABB at ETH Zurich, one guest lecture by Northvolt at EPFL). Travel expenses for students will be covered.
Elements of calculus will be reviewed during the lectures, where necessary, but we leave the hard work of solving coupled differential charge transport equations to the computer and focus on developing a strong intuition. Prior knowledge in semiconductor physics or electrochemistry is an advantage, but not a prerequisite.
Students are required to bring a windows-compatible computer with a common data analysis software to the exercises. Apps for simulating devices under different operating conditions will be made available to the students.
Competencies
Subject-specific Competencies
Concepts and Theories
assessed
Performance assessment
Performance assessment information (valid until the course unit is held again)
Performance assessment as a semester course