Wine enthusiasts know very well that they must not leave bottles exposed to light if they want to keep the quality of the goodies they are looking for so passionately in the wine shop intact: the sun’s rays produce alterations in the complex balance of molecules from which red and white take shape. Valuable. In short, we all know empirically, even if we do not have great knowledge of physics, that light produces measurable effects on matter, modifying it.
And it is precisely in this context that a group of researchers intend to try their hand, including the Italian Mauro Nisoli, of the Politecnico di Milano, and the Spanish Fernando Martín of the Universidad Autónoma of Madrid and his namesake Nazario Martín of the Universidad Complutense, of Madrid.
For their studies, the three will be able to take advantage of 12 million euros disbursed over six years, made available to them by one of the Synergy Grants that the European Research Council (ERC) has granted in its 2020 program.
The Italo-Iberian group will study what happens inside the molecules in the moments, indeed in the attoseconds, infinitesimal time intervals, immediately following their interaction with light. Beyond the expected impact in the optoelectronics sector, applications in the field of photovoltaics and the study of light-induced processes are expected. In short, this research could lead us to identify organic materials to create, to give just one example, highly efficient and totally eco-sustainable photovoltaic cells.
