Title: The Energy of Collaborations: Beyond Novel Semiconductor Materials Inks and Devices for Solar Energy Harvesting
Energy is core to human activity and development. Solar energy from traditionally established technologies, such as Si photovoltaics (PV), has played a crucial role in the energy mix for decades: they are resilient and offer about 25 years of service. However, the emergence of organic and perovskite PVs as promising alternatives to Si PVs brings a new wave of optimism for the future of solar power. These technologies, with direct implications for urban cities with high-rise buildings, seek to decentralize solar energy and make solar panels more accessible, flexible, and end-user- friendly. The new materials for PVs are lightweight, ultra-thin, and (semi)transparent, offering a high power-to-weight ratio compared to Si panels. However, they suffer from toxicity and severe degradation, leading to low long-term stability and lifetime. These urgent and important challenges for organic and perovskite PVs are highlighted, and the need for collaborations to understand and mitigate them is paramount. As we will quickly realize, efforts in these emerging areas are complex, and the highlights will show why collaborations are not just beneficial but vital to the success of the efforts.
Nutifafa Y. Doumon is an assistant professor of Materials Science and Engineering & Engineering Science and Mechanics at The Pennsylvania State University, University Park. He is a Virginia S. and Philip L. Walker Jr. professor of Materials Science and Engineering and the Fuels Science Program. Before joining Penn State, he worked as a researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado, and INRS-EMT in Varennes, Canada. He holds a Ph.D. in Nanoscience/Applied Physics and an M.Sc. in Nanoscience from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. In 2011, he obtained an M.Sc. degree in Theoretical Physics from AUST-Abuja after a B.Sc. degree in Physics in 2009 from the University of Ghana, Legon. His research interests are organic, polymer, and perovskite photovoltaic and optoelectronic device characterization, stability, and reliability testing.
