Research Area A

Energy Autonomy

Deliberate change between physical states consumes energy, and so do the adaptive processes conceived by livMatS. To be truly autonomous, materials systems should harvest the energy that they require for adaptation or self-healing from their immediate environment, and they should be able to convert and store it for later use. Research in livMatS focuses on three different sources for clean energy: solar, thermal, and mechanical energy.

The harvested energy will either directly power functionalities of the materials systems, or be converted into, stored, and used as electrical energy. In addition, interconversion and storage into mechanical and chemical energy is also envisaged. Internal control over energy uptake, storage, and distribution will be achieved by the installation of chemical, structural, and microsystem-based regulatory networks, so that energy is available in an appropriate form exactly when and where it is needed. All these functionalities should be an integral part of the materials systems. This unprecedented combination of functional principles and their seamless and non-interfering integration poses a great challenge for the conception and development of fabrication technologies.

Coordinators Research Area A
Prof. Dr. Anna Fischer, Prof. Dr. Peter Woias

Projects within Research Area A

Longterm Projects 2022 and 2023

• O2 Sensor System for Living Materials
• Electrochemical and Photoelectrochemical Actuators (PhotoECact)
• Investigation of crystallinity, surface defects, surface functionalizations and nanostructure effects of triboelectric TiO2 electrodes (TriboNano)
• Solstore II - Development of photosupercapacitors and photobatteries with high power and energy densities and long-term stability
• TriboMech - Programmable Triboelectric Energy Harvesting through Mechanical Design
• Chemistry of triboelectric materials (TriboGen-Chem)
• Thermoelectric Energy Harvesting with Responsive Metamaterial Surfaces - ThermoMetaS
  This project is a collaboration between research areas A and B.
• (Photo)electrochemical production of H2O2 for H2O2-fueled adaptive processes i.e. H2O2-fueled chemistry and demonstratory (H2O2-Synthesis)
  This project is a collaboration between research areas A and B.
• Studying the properties of lipids and lipid surfaces for usage in triboelectric nano-generators and beyond
  This project is carried out within the the Cluster’s Agnes Pockels Doctoral Fellowship Program.
• Energy autonomy concepts - From photobatteries and photoactuators to on-board photoelectrochemical H2O2 production
  This project is carried out within the the Cluster’s Agnes Pockels Doctoral Fellowship Program.

Longterm Projects 2019 and 2020

• Inorganic and Organic SolStore
• ThermoBatS - Thermoelectric Battery Systems
• Interfaces, charge-transfer and non-adiabatic processes and their exploitation in a frequency-tunable tribogenerator
• NANOTRET: Nano‐micro‐structured permanently charged surfaces for electret nanogenerators
  This project is a collaboration between research area A and Demonstrators.
• Correlating redox properties of organic materials with triboelectric charge-separation – from basic understanding to novel materials for efficient triboelectric energy harvesting
• Development, characterisation and integration of flexible solar modules as energy supply unit in a livMatS demonstrator
  This project is a collaboration between research area A and Demonstrators.
• Electret-based fluttering for wind energy harvesting with internal structure
  This project is a collaboration between research areas A and C. It is carried out within the Cluster’s Hermann Staudinger Doctoral Fellowship Program.
• Development of an artificial Venus flytrap
  This project is a collaboration between research areas A, B, C and Demonstrators.

Booster Projects 2023 - finished

• Modelling of carbon-nanotube based conductive suspensions for applications in flow supercapacitors
  Responsible Investigator: Prof. Dr. Tanja Schilling
• Theoretical and computational investigation of novel multifunctional materials for mode III photobatteries
  Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Christian Elsässer
• ORGAPHOTOBAT – Multijunction Organic Solar Cells for Photo-Charging of Different Battery Systems and Energy Sup-ply for Sustainable H2O2 Generation
  Responsible Investigator: Dr. Uli Würfel
  Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Anna Fischer
• NovoM3PhotoBatt
  Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Harald Hillebrecht and Prof. Dr. Anna Fischer
• A sustainable approach towards peptide synthesis in water
  This project is a collaboration between research areas A, B, D and Demonstrators.
  Junior Research Group leader: Dr. Charalampos Pappas
  Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Jürgen Rühe
• ECPhotoACT - First steps towards photoelectrochemical actuators
  This project is a collaboration between research areas A, B and Demonstrators.
  Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Anna Fischer
• Zinc(Photo)Batt
  This project is a collaboration between research areas A and D.
  Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Anna Fischer
  Responsible Investigator: Dr. Daniel Biro
• TriboSense
  Principal Investigators: Prof. Dr. Peter Woias and Prof. Dr. Anna Fischer

Booster Projects 2021 - finished

• Advanced Materials and Electrodes for the Development of Photocaps and Photobatteries
  Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Anna Fischer
• MAX and MXene phases from molten metals and molten salts as active electrode materials for photosupercapacitors, photobatteries and photoelectrochemical actuators
  Principal Investigators: Prof. Dr. Harald Hillebrecht and Prof. Dr. Anna Fischer
• Electrolyte and Cathode Active Material Adaption to the Needs of Photo(assisted) Charging of Photobatteries
  Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Ingo Krossing
• Non-equilibrium peptide chemical networks
  Junior Research Group leader: Dr. Charalampos Pappas
  Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Thorsten Hugel
• Highly flexible triboelectric strain sensors
  This project is a collaboration between research areas A and Demonstrators.
  Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Peter Woias
• Nanostructured and surface functionalized titania surfaces for triboelectric generators
  Principal Investigators: Prof. Dr. Peter Woias and Prof. Dr. Anna Fischer

Compact Projects 2021 - finished

• Adaptive Peptide Libraries
  This project is a collaboration between research areas A and B.
  Junior Research Group leader: Dr. Charalampos Pappas
• Functionalization of silicon-based surfaces with redox active compounds
  Responsible Investigator: Dr. Bizan Balzer
• Fatigue in energy-harvesting mechanical metamaterials
  This project is a collaboration between research areas A and C.
  Junior Research Group leader: Dr. Viacheslav Slesarenko
• Electrochemical investigation of nanostructured electrochemical
  Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Anna Fischer

Compact Projects 2020 - finished

• Oxidic double perovskites A2MM’O6 and its 2D variants as possible materials for the rechargeable photo cell
  Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Harald Hillebrecht
• Development of a novel electrolyte system for a photocharging battery system
  Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Ingo Krossing
• Hydrogenase-Electrode-Hybrids towards enzymatic proton production for ATP Synthases
  This project is a collaboration between research areas A and B.
  Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Anna Fischer
• Porosity- and charge storage tailoring in mesoporous nitrogen doped carbon nanospheres
  This project is a collaboration between research areas A and B.
  Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Anna Fischer
• Tuning the physicochemical properties of porous carbon materials as electrode materials for redox-flow batteries
  This project is a collaboration between research areas A and B.
  Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Anna Fischer