Position/Role

Associate Professor of Physical Chemistry, University of Pavia and Director of the PVsquared2 team at the Chemistry Department of University of Pavia

Professional career

Giulia Grancini received an MS in Physical Engineering in 2008 and obtained her PhD in Physics cum laude in 2012 at the Politecnico of Milan. Her experimental thesis focused on the realisation of a new femtosecond-microscope for mapping the ultrafast phenomena at organic interfaces. During her PhD, she worked for one year at the Physics Department of Oxford University where she pioneered new concepts within polymer/oxide solar cell technology. From 2012-2015, she was a post-doctoral researcher at the Italian Institute of Technology in Milan. In 2015, she joined the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) with a Co-Funded Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship. From 2016 to 2019, she has been awarded by the Swiss Ambizione Energy Grant providing a platform to lead her independent research group at EPFL. Since July 2019, Giulia is Associate Professor at Physical Chemistry Unit at University of Pavia, leading the PVsquared2 team, and PI of the ERCStG Project “HYNANO”aiming at the development of advanced hybrid perovskites materials and innovative functional interfaces for efficient, cheap and stable photovoltaics. 

Scientific results

The research interest of Giulia Grancini is focused on exploring the fundamental photophysical properties and dynamical processes behind advanced materials and devices, with a special attention to nanostructured semiconductors for the development of new generation solar cells.  Within this field, she contributed to reveal the fundamental light-induced dynamical processes underlying the charge generation mechanisms happening on ultrafast time scale whose understanding is paramount for a smart device optimization. In particular, she made seminal contributions in ultrafast science applied to investigate the interface physics in polymer blends, and hybrid polymer/oxide systems. With the ERC “HY-NANO” project, her recent research is focused on the design and the study of HYbrid NANOstructured multi-functional interfaces for the development of advanced photovoltaic devices based on low dimensional hybrid perovskite semiconductors. More in details, her multidisciplinary team aims at expanding the family of hybrid perovskite materials and interfaces as lego-bricks for a new generation of efficient, stable, environmentally friendly solar technology. 

Editorial work and publications

She is author of more than 90 publications (h index= 44, with more than 14000 citations).

[2020] Sutanto A, Szostak R, Drigo N, Queloz V, Marchezi P, Germino J, Tolentino H, Nazeeruddin M, Nogueira A, Grancini G* In Situ Analysis Reveals the Role of 2D Perovskite in Preventing Thermal-Induced Degradation in 2D/3D Perovskite Interfaces Nano Lett. 20, 5, 3992-3998.

[2020] Queloz V. et al. Spatial Charge Separation as the Origin of Anomalous Stark Effect in Fluorous 2D Hybrid Perovskites Adv. Funct. Mater. https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202000228

[2019] Grancini G*, Nazeeruddin M Dimensional tailoring of hybrid perovskites for photovoltaics Nature Rev. Materials, 4, 4-22.

[2018] Pantaler M, Cho K, Queloz V, García Benito I., Fettkenhauer C, Anusca I, Nazeeruddin M, Lupascu D, Grancini G* Hysteresis-Free Lead-Free Double-Perovskite Solar Cells by Interface Engineering ACS Energy Lett. 3, 1781-1786.

[2017] Grancini G. et al. One-Year stable perovskite solar cells by 2D/3D interface engineering. Nature Comm., 8(1) 1-8, 15684.

[2017] A. D. Jodlowski, C. Roldán-Carmona, G. Grancini, et al. Large guanidinium cation mixed with methylammonium in lead iodide perovskites for 19% efficient solar cells Nature Energy 2, 972.

[2016] Gratia, P., Grancini G.* et al. Intrinsic Halide Segregation at Nanometer Scale Determines the High-Efficiency of mixed cation/mixed halide Perovskite Solar Cells J. Am. Chem. Soc. 138 (49), 15821.

[2015] Grancini G. et al. Role of microstructure in the electron-hole interaction of hybrid lead halide perovskitesNature Photonics 9, 695-701.

[2014] D’Innocenzo V., Grancini G. et al. Excitons versus Free Charges: a Photophysical Picture of Organo-lead Tri- Halide Perovskites Nat. Commun. 5, 3586.

[2013] Grancini G. et al. Hot exciton dissociation in polymer solar cells Nature Mater. 12, 29.

[2013] Stranks S. D., Eperon G. E., Grancini G. et al. Electron-Hole Diffusion Lengths Exceeding 1 Micron in an Organometal Trihalide Perovskite Absorber Science 342 (6156), 341. 

[2012] G. Grancini, et al. Boosting Infrared Light Harvesting by Molecular Functionalization of Metal Oxide/Polymer Interfaces in Efficient Hybrid Solar Cells Adv. Funct. Mater. 22, 2160. 

Awards and prizes

In 2015 she received the prestigious National Award for Physics 2015 from EDISON, “in memoria di Francesco Somaini”. 

In 2017 she has been awarded by the IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Optics from the International Commission of Optics for her ““deep knowledge on photophysical properties and ultrafast light-induced dynamical processes”c.

In 2018 she received the “Swiss Physical Society Award” from the Swiss Physical Society.

In 2018 she has been granted by the ERC Starting Grant HYNANO (1.5 M€) for the developement of “HYbrid NANOstructured multi-functional interfaces for stable, efficient and eco-friendly photovoltaic devices”.

In 2019 she has been nominated USERN Laureate in Physical Science. In addition, from January 2020 she is the Italian Ambassador for USERN.

In 2019 she appears among the “Highly Cited Researchers” (ranking in the top 1% by citations for field and year), Web of Science.

From 2020 she joined the “Gruppo 2003” and she is part of the Top Italian Scientist list.