Research Field

We grow function nanomaterials useful for environmental remediation via low-vacuum chemical deposition methods such as atomic layer deposition and sequential infiltration synthesis. We aim to grow nanostructured membranes with controllable morphologies (including porosity and surface area), and controllable electrical properties. We use various in-situ metrology techniques to probe the physical and chemical changes of the growing nanomaterials to study growth mechanisms of the environmental nanomaterials.

A key concept of SolarThermoPhotoVoltaics (STPV) lies in a spectral shaping of the solar spectrum by exploiting a selective emitter to match the spectral response of a solar cell. In theory, STPV can achieve an energy conversion efficiency of as high as 85.4 %, which is much greater than the Shockley-Queisseer limit of 33.7 % for a single-junction solar cell. Our aim to develop a selective emitter of high spectral selectivity, high useful power density, and high thermal stability. We study the physical and chemical changes of a selective emitter upon a long-term operation at a high temperature to provide feedback for the design of a novel selective emitter for STPV.

Advances in the growth of complex functional nanostructures require advances in characterization techniques with a higher resolution, a higher sensitivity, and higher spatial dimensions. The collection and correlation of different kinds of information on the structures of the nanomaterials is an essential step to define the growth - structure - property relationships of nanomaterials. Thus, we develop complementary characterization approaches based on Atom Probe Tomography to probe a three-dimensional distribution of chemical composition and to correlate compositional distribution with crystal structures, structural defects and electrical/optical/thermal properties of the nanostructured materials.