Skip to main content

At the newly founded Helmholtz Institute for Polymers in Energy Applications HIPOLE Jena, the Helmholtz Center Berlin for Materials and Energy (HZB) and the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (FSU Jena) work together in the sphere of energy storage and energy conversion.

In order to achieve climate neutrality in Germany within the next 20 years, we are researching highly efficient, scalable, cost-effective and sustainably produced energy technologies.

To reach this goal, HIPOLE Jena integrates world-class expertise in polymer chemistry, materials science, high-throughput experiments and artificial intelligence.
See More Posts
The central strategic goal of HIPOLE Jena is the accelerated, knowledge-based development of sustainable polymer materials for scalable energy technologies.

HIPOLE Jena is based on three research pillars:

  • Material design & synthesis
  • Scalability, prototypes, and transfer
  • Characterization, theory & modeling and data science

This triad forms the basis for five areas of the HIPOLE Jena research mission:

  1. Polymer redox-flow batteries
  2. Polymer-based thin-film batteries
  3. Photovoltaics
  4. Functional self-healing materials
  5. Sustainable chemistry

Job offer

Polymer redox-flow batteries

Redox-flow batteries (RFB) are a special battery technology. In contrast to many other battery systems, with RFB the performance and capacity can be scaled independently of each other. RFBs are particularly interesting for stationary energy storage. As part of HIPOLE Jena, organic, polymer-based electrolytes are being investigated, which makes the use of critical metals/metal ions in the electrolytes obsolete.

Polymer-based thin-film batteries

The large area of organic electronics opens up many new application possibilities, such as in the area of smart textiles or the “Internet of Things”. In this context, polymer-based active materials and electrolytes allow the printing production of flexible, tailor-made batteries. In HIPOLE Jena, the next generation of these materials is being investigated, which should, for example, enable a longer lifespan.

Photovoltaics

Commercial photovoltaic technologies have reached the terawatt (TW) range in terms of installed capacity worldwide. There will continue to be a very high demand for photovoltaic systems in the next few years, requiring scalable technologies to meet the ever-growing demand. HIPOLE Jena is dedicated to perovskite solar cells. The use of polymers is intended to improve stability, for example.

Functional self-healing materials

Functional self-healing materials represent a special field of research. These can restore their original properties after damage. For example, in battery electrodes the conductivity should be restored after damage to the electrode. Comparable approaches should also be used for solar cells.

Sustainable chemistry

In the plastic age, which is also strongly associated with the negative environmental impacts of plastics (e.g. microplastics), sustainability plays an important role. Therefore, the polymers for the various applications should be created based on sustainable resources and their recycling should be possible. For example, the use of CO2 as a building block for the polymers plays an important role.

Contact us