Sustainable use of materials in deposition technologies: process optimisation and realisation of microcavity devices for hybrid photovoltaics and new battery concepts

This Thesis investigates the use of various deposition techniques for a sustainable use of materials and the realization of advanced devices with potential applications in green technologies, such as energy detection, production and storage. A solvent-casting method enabled the fabrication of metal cation-based anion exchange membranes, key component in water electrolysis for green hydrogen production. Additionally, the feasibility of fabricating polymer membranes via electrospinning was assessed with potential for broader applications, including novel battery systems. Electron-beam physical vapor deposition was used to realize distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs) for enhanced light-sensitive organic devices, which is crucial for the development of green technologies, such as organic solar cells and organic photodetectors (OPDs). High-reflective DBRs were realized on flexible polymeric substrates and successfully integrated in an OPD, demonstrating spectral selectivity and optical filtering, which can contribute to improve photon gathering mechanisms in this class of devices. Finally, a 3D printing approach was developed to realize scintillators for radiation detection incorporating in-situ synthesized perovskite nanocrystals within a polymer matrix. The scintillators were optically characterized and tested under X-ray and Electron Flash LINAC excitation. It was demonstrated for the first time that 3D printed samples containing CsPbBr₃ perovskites have a linear dose response even in ultra-high dose rate regime.