Second generation solar cells based on thin films of polycrystalline semiconductors promise to reduce the cost of sunlight-to-electricity conversion compared to first generation crystalline silicon. Efficient thin-film absorber materials can fulfil the multiple roles of light-absorption, charge separation, and transport of both holes and electrons out of the device. A third generation of materials, which can be processed with solution-based techniques at low-temperature, such as printing, should ultimately lead to the least expensive solar cell technology. However, most of the materials processable with the lowest cost methods usually require complex architectures of distributed heterojunctions to ionise tightly bound electron-hole pairs. This inherently introduces losses at the high density of internal material interfaces. Recently organic-inorganic metal halide perovskite absorbers have rocketed to the forefront of PV research as efficient solar cell materials, which seem to be both simple to process and promise to reach the highest efficiencies. This paradigm shift arguably represents a 4^th generation of photovoltaics. Here I will present our developments in perovskite solar cells, highlighting how the technology has mutated and evolved from a nanostructured solar cell to a thin film device. I will present our recent results on improving and understanding perovskite solar cells, with both device based and spectroscopic investigations and highlight some of the reasons why these materials work so well and the future prospects.
Biography:
Henry Snaith is a Professor in the physics department of Oxford University. He received his PhD in 2004 from the University of Cambridge, UK and undertook his postdoc at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland. His research has been focussed on new materials and device architectures for future generation low cost photovoltaic. His achievements include, the first demonstration of “gyroid” structured titania for dye solar cells, the first demonstration of a mesoporous single crystals of anataze TiO₂ and the recent discovery high efficiency solid-state organic-inorganic metal halide perovskite based thin film and mesosuperstructured solar cells. He was awarded the Patterson Medal of the Institute of Physics in 2012, and named as one of “Natures Ten” people who mattered in 2013 and received the MRS outstanding young investigator award in 2014. In 2010 he founded Oxford Photovoltaics Ltd. which is commercialising perovskite solar cells for building integrated and utility scale photovoltaic applications.

The advent of graphene had a strong impact in the field of materials science and a large number of researchers, working in diverse areas of materials science and nanotechnology, have been engaged in the excitement provided by this unique material. Even more, recent years have seen the spectacular growth of this effort, including a large number of material compositions that adapt the two-dimensional layered structure, exemplified by graphene. This talk will explore the current scenario of two-dimensional materials science and the efforts to synthesize, characterize, manipulate and engineer monoatomic layers into functional architectures. The ability to isolate and rebuild atomic layers with different electronic structure could lead to new, artificially hybridized and stacked van der Waals solids. The design of such novel 2D structures could impact several applications ranging from electronics to catalysis.

Organisms have been making exquisite inorganic materials for over 500 million years. These materials have many desired physical properties such as strength and regularity, which permit the organism to thrive in specific biological and physical environments. My lab seeks to expand the types of materials that living systems can utilize to make advanced technologies that are smarter and better adapted, using environmentally suitable techniques. One approach to designing future technologies that integrates the properties that living organisms use so well, is to select or evolve organisms to work with a more diverse set of building blocks. New nanostructured materials can be grown and assembled for energy storage, solar, carbon capture and re-use, catalysis, oil recovery and medical imaging by using genetic control and biologically inspired synthesis. In the field of energy storage, we demonstrate that biological engineering can enhance electrode design to improve specific capacity and cycling performance of both lithium-oxygen and lithium-ion batteries using M13 viruses to grow and assemble high-efficiency nanocatalysts from earth-abundant elements. In addition, rationally designing virus-based nanocomposites with high electron mobility can produce hybrid devices that can efficiently collect photo-generated electrons and greatly improves the performance of photovoltaic devices. M13 viruses can be further engineered as a scaffold to increase light collection, exciton transport and enable light driven reactions. Other applications include engineering yeast to convert carbon dioxide into building materials and the development of targeted probes in the second window near IR for detection and real-time surgical guidance of submillimeter ovarian tumors will be explored.
Nature, 405, 665, 2000
Science, 324,1051, 2009
Nature Communications 4, Article number: 2756, 2013
Nature Nanotechnology 6, 377, 2011
Energy Environ. Sci., 6, 660, 2013
Nano Lett.12 (3), 1176, 2012
Biography:
Angela Belcher is a biological and materials engineer with expertise in the fields of biomaterials, biomolecular materials, organic-inorganic interfaces and solid-state chemistry and devices. Her primary research focus is evolving new materials for energy, electronics, the environment, and medicine. She received her B.S. in Creative Studies with an emphasis in biology from The University of California, Santa Barbara. She earned a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry at UCSB in 1997. Following her postdoctoral research in electrical engineering at UCSB, she joined the faculty at The University of Texas at Austin in the Department of Chemistry in 1999. She joined the faculty at MIT in 2002 and now holds the W.M. Keck Chair in Energy. She is faculty in the Department of Biological Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering and the Koch Institute of Integrative Cancer Research. She teaches undergraduate subjects in material sciences and engineering and biological engineering. In 2002, she founded the company Cambrios Technologies, Inc., and in 2007 she founded Siluria Technologies, Inc. Some recent awards include the 2013 $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize for her Inventions, 2010 Eni Prize for Renewable and Non-conventional Energy, in 2009 Rolling Stone Magazine listed her as one of the top 100 people changing the country. In 2007, Time Magazine named her a “Hero”- for her research related to Climate Change. She was named Research Leader of the Year by Scientific American and is a MacArthur Fellow, a Packard Fellow, and an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow.
For information about her research, here&’s a link to a recent TED video and from the NOVA series “Making Stuff”:
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/angela_belcher_using_nature_to_grow_batteries.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/making-more-stuff.html#making-stuff-wilder (Starting at ~43 minute mark)
http://video.mit.edu/watch/2013-500000-lemelson-mit-prize-winner-24779/
.http://video.mit.edu/watch/better-batteries-through-biology-26412/
http://www.lawrencehallofscience.org/nanozone/tn/thennow_belcher.htm

The National Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) was launched just over 3 years ago. The vision for MGI is to reduce the time required for materials discovery and move the materials from the research lab to commercial use by half, and realize this transition at a far lower cost than is currently possible. This presentation will provide an overview of MGI, updates relevant to how MGI has and will continue to fit in the broader materials science and engineering research activities, discussion of the recently released MGI strategic plan, and the funding status among the participating agencies. The presentation will highlight the fundamental science foundation and opportunities that crosscut theory, modeling, experiment, and computational science research as well as the impact of MGI on advanced manufacturing with a focus on the opportunities to impact processes used in fabrication and delivery of final components.
The speakers will be:
Dr. Cyrus Wadia: Assistant Director for Clean Energy & Materials R&D with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He works on Federal policies to accelerate innovation and deployment of advanced material systems for clean energy, national security, and human welfare. He is on leave from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) and the Haas School of Business where he holds a dual appointment as: Co-Director of Clean Tech to Market and Research Scientist. His research has been motivated by the pursuit of new low cost energy technologies using earth abundant materials. For his work with novel solar cells, Dr. Wadia was a recipient of the MIT TR35 Young Innovator award.
Prior to his work at LBNL, he spent seven years in Silicon Valley launching new technology to market. First as an engagement manager with R.B. Webber & Co where he worked with over 15 different venture backed startups; and next as a Senior Product Manager with AvantGo, where he completed several successful new product introductions.
Dr. Wadia earned his PhD in Energy & Resources from U.C. Berkeley and holds both an M.S. and S.B. in Chemical Engineering from MIT.
Dr. Linda Horton: Division Director, Materials Sciences and Engineering, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Office of Science, U. S. Department of Energy. Her division supports over $350M of research in fundamental materials science research at universities, national laboratories, and private institutions.
Prior to joining the Department of Energy, she was the Director for the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), one of the five BES national user facilities for nanoscale science research. In previous roles at ORNL, she was the program director for the ORNL BES Materials and Engineering Physics program and Deputy Division Director for the Metals and Ceramics Division. Her personal research emphasized applications of electron microscopy to materials science problems, including investigations of the effects of ion implantation and neutron irradiation on the structure and properties of ferritic alloys and ceramic materials and studies of the growth and characterization of diamond thin films.
Dr. Horton received her M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in Materials Science. She has served on the Board of Directors for the Materials Research Society (including Treasurer), ASM International, and the Microscopy Society of America.
Dr. Laurie Locascio: Director, Material Measurement Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology. The Material Measurement Lab has more than 900 staff members and visiting scientists, an annual budget of more than $160 million, and serves as the nation's reference laboratory for measurements in the chemical, biological and materials sciences through activities ranging from fundamental research in the composition, structure and properties of industrial, biological, and environmental materials and processes, to the development and dissemination of certified reference materials, critically evaluated data and other measurement quality assurance programs. The Material Measurement Laboratory serves a broad range of industry sectors ranging from transportation to biotechnology, and provides research, measurement services and quality assurance tools for addressing problems of national importance ranging from assessment of climate change, to the investigation of new sources of renewable energy, to improved diagnostics and therapies for health care.
Dr. Locascio received her B.Sc. in chemistry from James Madison University, M.Sc. in bioengineering from the University of Utah, and Ph.D. in toxicology from the University of Maryland School of Medicine.