Ignasi Burgués-Ceballos, PhD

Common sense, Critical thinking, Cooperation

short bio

Experimental scientist with a strong commitment to Materials Science for energy-related applications. My main research contributions pivot around the development and application of solution-processed organic/hybrid semiconductors for thin film optoelectronic applications, with a special focus on photovoltaics. My areas of work include both fundamental as well as applied studies, spanning from material design and synthesis of advanced materials to device engineering and advanced processing methodologies.

I am a chemist from the IQS School of Engineering (2007) and have been awarded a PhD in chemistry from the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona, ICMAB-CSIC (2014), and a Beatriu de Pinós postdoctoral fellowship (2018). My career has been carried out at 6 different research groups in 4 European countries, including an academic career break in a world-class industrial environment (Merck Group, UK). The rest of my academic experiences have taken place in 2 research institutes (ICMAB-CSIC and ICFO – The Institute of Photonic Sciences, Spain), 3 universities (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya UPC, Spain; Cyprus University of Technology, and Friedrich-Alexander-Universität FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany), and 1 centre of technology (Eurecat, Spain). Currently, I am a senior scientist at the Functional Printing & Embedded Devices unit in Eurecat, and lecturer of the Chemical Engineering Department at the UPC. I have co-authored >20 peer-reviewed international journal publications, including one paper in Nature Photonics and one in Joule, as well as a variety of significant papers in excellent journals including Advanced Energy Materials, Advanced Functional Materials, Nano Energy and leading Chemistry journals. I am also co-inventor in 3 patents (Merck Group) and have given 10 invited talks and seminars at international conferences and advanced schools. Currently, I am the principal investigator in two projects of the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación and have participated in 5 European projects.

short CV

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

May 2021 - now

Senior Research Scientist

Eurecat, Technology Centre of Catalonia - Spain

Functional Printing and Embedded Devices Unit

Oct 2019 - now

Lecturer in Chemistry and Environmental Technology

Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) - Spain

Chemical Engineering Department

Oct 2018 - Apr 2021

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

ICFO, The Institute of Photonic Sciences - Spain

Functional Optoelectronic Nanomaterials; Prof. G. Konstantatos

May 2016 - Jul 2018

Research Scientist II

Merck Group - United Kingdom

Chilworth Technical Centre. Performance Materials, Organic Photovoltaics Fundamentals

Nov 2014 - Apr 2016

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Cyprus University of Technology - Cyprus

Molecular Electronics and Photonics research unit; Prof. S. A. Choulis

May 2014 - Oct 2014

Research Scientist

Eurecat, Technology Centre of Catalonia - Spain

Functional Printing and Embedded Devices Unit

Nov 2012 - Feb 2013

Visiting PhD Student

Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) - Germany

Institute Materials for Electronics and Energy Technology (i-MEET); Prof. C. J. Brabec

Mar 2010 - Apr 2014

PhD Student

Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC) - Spain

Nanostructured Materials for Optoelectronics and Energy Harvesting (Nanopto); Prof. M. Campoy-Quiles

EDUCATION

2014

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Chemistry, cum laude distinction

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) - Spain

Thesis: "Towards industrial viability of organic solar cells: ITO-free, green solvents and technological aspects for upscalability"

Supervisors: Prof. Mariano Campoy-Quiles, Dr. Paul D. Lacharmoise

2010

Master of Science (MSc) in Engineering and Management of Renewable Energies

Universitat de Barcelona (UB) - Spain

IL3-UB

2009

Master of Science (MSc) in Research in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

IQS School of Engineering (Universitat Ramon Llull) - Spain

Thesis: "Synthesis of 2,7,12,17-tetrakis(m-hydroxyphenyl)porphycene and related compounds for photodynamic therapy"

Supervisor: Dr. Santi Nonell

2007

Chemistry degree

IQS School of Engineering (Universitat Ramon Llull) - Spain

funded projects

as Principal Investigator:

  1. 12/22-11/25: SYNATRA, Synergistic architectures for next gen agrivoltaics incorporating transparent organic solar modules; Grant ref. PLEC2022-009323; Proyectos en Líneas Estratégicas 2022, Agencia Estatal de Investigación.

  2. 12/22-11/24: LEGATO, Laser-assisted digitalisation of organic photovoltaic module production; Grant ref. TED2021-129978A-I00; Proyectos Estratégicos Orientados a la Transición Ecológica y a la Transición Digital 2021, Agencia Estatal de Investigación.

  3. 10/18-01/21: Towards high throughput fabrication of solution-processed nanocrystal solar cells with high performance and stability; Grant ref. 2017BP00241; Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR).

as a Researcher in EU projects:

  1. 04/20-03/23: MADRAS, Advanced Materials and Processing in Organic Electronics; (862492); H2020 NMBP; PI: P. Lacharmoise (Eurecat).

  2. 01/16-04/21: SEPOMO, Spins for Efficient Photovoltaic Devices based on Organic Molecules (72651); H2020 MSCA ITN; PI: M. Pchenitchnikov (U. Groningen).

  3. 03/14-03/18: StableNextSol, Stable Next-Generation Photovoltaics: Unraveling degradation mechanisms of Organic and Perovskite Solar Cells by complementary characterization techniques (MP1307); MNPS COST ACTION.

  4. 11/13–04/17 PLASMAS, Fabrication of ITO-free OLEDs and OPVs based on inkjet printed Cu grids (604568); FP7-NMP-2013-SME-7. PI: E. List-Kratochvil (Humboldt U.)

  5. 09/12-08/16 ML2, MultiLayer MicroLab (318088); FP7-ICT-2011-8; PI: C. Baum (Fraunhofer IPT)

Awards/fellowships

2014 – PhD cum laude in Chemistry

2018 – Beatriu de Pinós Postdoctoral Fellowship

2018 - Tenure-eligible lecturer AQU

2021 - I3 Certification, Secretaría General de Universidades (Spain)

2021 – Front cover in Joule

Peer review

  1. Nature Energy

  2. Joule

  3. Advanced Materials

  4. ACS Energy Letters

  5. Journal of Materials Chemistry C

  6. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

  7. Applied Physics Letters

  8. APL Materials

  9. Journal of Applied Physics

  10. AIP Advances

Selected publications

“Transparent organic photovoltaics: a strategic niche to advance commercialization”, Joule, 5 (2021) 2261. DOI: 10.1016/j.joule.2021.07.004

“Towards photovoltaic windows: scalable fabrication of semitransparent modules based on non-fullerene acceptors via laser-patterning”, J. Mater. Chem. A, 8 (2020) 9882. DOI: 10.1039/D0TA02994G

“High-performing polycarbazole derivatives for efficient solution-processing of organic solar cells in air”, ChemSusChem, 8 (2015) 4209–4215. DOI: 10.1002/cssc.201501128

"Classification of Additives for Organic Photovoltaic Devices", ChemPhysChem 16 (2015), 1275-1280. DOI: 10.1002/cphc.201402734

"Solubility based identification of green solvents for small molecule organic solar cells", Adv. Funct. Mater., 24 (2014) 1449-145. DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201301509

“Embedded inkjet printed silver grids for ITO-free organic solar cells with high fill factor”, Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells, 127 (2014) 50-57. DOI: 10.1016/j.solmat.2014.03.024

"Towards industrialization of polymer solar cells: material processing for upscaling", J. Mater. Chem. A 2 (2014), 17711-17722. DOI: 10.1039/C4TA03780D

Selected publications

“Cation disorder engineering yields AgBiS2 nanocrystals with enhanced optical absorption for efficient ultrathin solar cells”, Nat. Photon. 16 (2022) 235–241. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5733213

"Mixed AgBiS2 nanocrystals for photovoltaics and photodetectors", Nanoscale, 14 (2022) 4987-4993. DOI: 10.1039/D2NR00589A

“Colloidal AgBiS2 nanocrystals with reduced recombination yield 6.4% power conversion efficiency in solution-processed solar cells”, Nano Energy 75, (2020) 104961. DOI: 10.1016/j.nanoen.2020.104961.

Selected publications

"Up-scalable ITO-free organic light emitting diodes based on embedded inkjet-printed copper grids", Flex. Print. Electron. 4 (2019) 025004. DOI: 10.1088/2058-8585/ab17a5

"Inkjet-printed embedded Ag-PEDOT:PSS electrodes with improved light out coupling effects for highly efficient ITO-free blue polymer light emitting diodes", Appl. Phys. Lett. 110, (2017) 101107. DOI: 10.1063/1.4978429

"High performance indium tin oxide-free solution-processed organic light emitting diodes based on inkjet-printed fine silver grid lines", Flex. Print. Electron. 1 (2016) 035004. DOI: 10.1088/2058-8585/1/3/035004

Selected publications

“Improved Performance and Reliability of p-i-n Perovskite Solar Cells via Doped Metal Oxides”, Adv. Energy Mater., 6 (2016) 1600285. DOI: 10.1002/aenm.201600285.

"The influence of additives in the stoichiometry of hybrid lead halide perovskites", AIP Advances 7 (2017), 115304. DOI: 10.1063/1.5010261