Prof. Koster partner in consortium that receives H2020 Marie Curie ITN-ETN grant

Prof. Jan Anton Koster of the Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials (ZIAM) is partner in a consortium that received an H2020 Marie Curie ITN-ETN grant worth almost EUR 4 million. The grant is for the ‘ Hybrid and ORgAnic ThermoElectric Systems (HORATES) project’. The aim of the project is to train fifteen promising early stage researchers (ESRs) in the emerging interdisciplinary field of organic thermoelectrics.

Waste heat is a ubiquitous source of low-quality energy that is yet to be harvested and transformed into high-quality energy in the form of electricity. Low-cost and highly scalable thermoelectric generators (TEGs) based on organic materials and hybrid composites can achieve this. The ESRs (PhD-students) will be trained in the full chain of organic thermoelectrics; from molecular design and synthesis via in-depth characterization and predictive multiscale modelling to large-area printed devices. The consortium consists of eight academic and three industrial partners. The Ruprecht Karls Universität Heidelberg is the coordinator.

Prof. Koster receives EUR 266,000 for his part in the project. To accommodate for the specific properties of organic semiconductors, a robust model for optimizing thermoelectric generators is needed. The PhD student who will be supervised by Prof. Koster will combine experimental work and numerical simulations for this. The objectives are setting up and testing a model for thermoelectric legs and full TEGs, and using the model to optimize the design of such TEGs.