In the afternoon of April 20, Prof. Michael Grätzel, a famous photoelectric chemist from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne, visited XMU and gave a talk with a topic of Molecular Photovoltaics and Mesoscopic Solar Cells. Prof. Zhongqun Tian hosted the lecture, and the Vice President of XMU, Nengming Jin, awarded Prof. Grätzel a commemorative plaque named as Nanqiang Lecture that is the highest level lecture at XMU.

 

This is Nanqiang lecture with multi-video system shared by such four universities and institution as XMU, FDU, USTC and DICP at four different locations. This again demonstrates it is important and successful for all collaborative units to share scientific resources and information through the multi-video system.

 

Prof. Grätzel talked about the significance of dye-sensitized nanocrystalline solar cells as the world demand for energy rapidly expands. He introduced theory, research development, and industrial applications of dye-sensitized nanocrystalline solar cells in details, and demonstrated the dye-sensitized nanocrystalline solar cells have the advantages of low-cost, high conversion efficiency, high stability and environmental compatibility that could have wide range of applications. Finally, Prof. Grätzel showed amazing paper-thin flexible photovoltaic cells that drew everyone’s attention and interest in the photoelectric materials. Prof. Grätzel also kindly answered the questions from our faculties and students.

 

Prof. Michael Grätzel is a professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne where he directs the Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces. He pioneered research on energy and electron transfer reactions in mesoscopic-materials and their optoelectronic applications. He discovered a new type of solar cell based on dye sensitized mesoscopic oxide particles and pioneered the use of nanomaterials in lithium ion batteries. He has been an author of over 900 publications, two books and inventor or co-inventor of over 50 patents. His work has been cited over 88’000 times (h-index 138) making him one of the 10 most highly cited chemists in the world. He has received numerous awards including the Millennium 2000 European innovation prize, the 2001 Faraday Medal of the British Royal Society, the 2001 Dutch Having a Award, the 2004 Italgas Prize, two McKinsey Venture awards in 1998 and 2002 and the 2005 Gerischer Prize.