Technologies

The Proof-of-Concept A.L.I.C.E. or "Actuators based on Light sensitive CompositE" aims at the development of innovative materials through 3D/4D printing processes and uses them as actuators in the fields of photovoltaics, concentrated solar power, thermodynamic solar, and other applications such as optical deflectors, optical microvalves, and optical switches.

Mirrors for space applications, besides featuring suitable optical properties, should be light, resistant to mechanical stresses, and unsensitive to light-shadow thermal cycling. The standard optical materials easily fulfill optical and thermal requirements, but are fragile, and the mirrors must be thick (typically 1/6 of the diameter). For this reason they are heavy, and the only available solution is to lighten them, by removing material from the back side, still preserving the necessary mechanical robustness and optical quality.

We propose a compact innovative spectroscopy system operating in the UV range. In the actual version, designed for gas, it exhibits: an aluminium tubular optical chamber (length can be adjusted; currently is 20 cm); a cheap commercial UV LED; a SiC visible blind UV detector designed and manufactured at the CNR-IMM facilities. The team developed also the electronic chain for wireless remote real time read out; while able to deal with pA current levels, it uses very cheap components and construction technology.

Design and testing of neoproteins with optimized nutritional value, according to needs, avoiding their degradation - thus maintaining a high production yield - and aggregation (which could make them indigestible). Neoproteins are produced and characterized in plant systems as bioreactors. We have already created zeolin, formed by the fusion of a bean seed protein with a portion of a maize seed protein.

The platform allows the deployment of a sensor network with peripheral nodes spread on the crop fields or on the environment for the monitoring of crop parameters/environmental parameters. The network architecture integrated LoRa peripheral nodes for short-medium range communication and star-center NB-IoT based for long range communication. It includes a web server and MySQL database for data storage and visualization. The network architecture is scalable to adapt to the area to monitor.

The invention is a synthetic method to prepare colloidal nanomaterials of V-VI-VII semiconductors that do not contain toxic elements. This is the first method for the synthesis of mixed anion nanomaterials without toxic elements at large, which permitted to obtain, among others, bismuth chalcohalide nanocrystals that are arguably considered as one of main candidates to be the next big thing for light energy conversion.

The proposing team that works at CNR ISTEC has recently patented a technology for the production of the Smart Polycrystals (SP), i.e. transparent YAG-based ceramic polycrystals (Y₃Al₅O₁₂) variably doped with rare earths ions and transition metals ions. The SPs solve the problem of the reduction of the efficiency in the solid state laser systems caused by the inhomogeneous heating of the single crystals during the emission process.

Electrochromism is an optoelectronic characteristic of particular interest because it can be exploited in the creation of technologies such as smart windows (Smart Windows) to promote energy efficiency, automotive, sensor or visualization devices. Electrochromic materials change their optoelectronic characteristics, showing different colors depending on the applied electric field.