The temperatureand frequency-dependent ac conductivity of nanoporous metal-oxide semiconductors commonly used in technologies for solar photoconversion is analyzed using a model based on fluctuation-induced tunneling conduction (FITC). The model takes into account the potential barriers at the regions of nanoparticle contact that limit electron transport. In contrast to previous models, quantit...

The MIT Faculty has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters. Recent advances in solar thermoelectric generator (STEG) performance have raised their prospect as a potential technology to convert solar energy into electricity. This paper presents an analysis of thin-film STEGs. Properties and geometries of the devices are lumped into two p...

Due to their high relative cost, solar electric energy systems have yet to be exploited on a widespread basis. It is believed in the energy community that a technology similar to photovoltaic (PV), but offered at about $1/W would lead to widespread deployment at residential and commercial sites. This paper addresses the investigation and feasibility study of a low-cost solar thermal electricity...

We report results from the exposure of the metalloporphyrin iron tetraphenylporphyrin chloride (FeTPPCl) to the outer space environment, measured in situ aboard the Organism/Organic Exposure to Orbital Stresses nanosatellite. FeTPPCl was exposed for a period of 17 months (3700 h of direct solar exposure), which included broad-spectrum solar radiation (∼122 nm to the near infrared). Motivated by...

Photovoltaics, which utilizes the largest possible energy source to generate electricity, represents one of the most attractive approaches towards renewable energy future. However, the cost of current solar electricity is still too high. Future photovoltaic technologies need to have high power conversion efficiency and can be fabricated with low cost. In this project, we propose novel nanocone ...

Great effort is geared toward investigation of new materials for solar energy conversion in recent years. Polymeric chromophore assemblies consisting of [Ru(bpy)3](2+) complexes attached to a polystyrene backbone have gained considerable interest in recent years because of their structural flexibility combined with their ability to efficiently capture solar energy and transport the captured ene...

Solution-processed organic photovoltaics (OPV) offer the attractive prospect of low-cost, light-weight and environmentally benign solar energy production. The highest efficiency OPV at present use low-bandgap donor polymers, many of which suffer from problems with stability and synthetic scalability. They also rely on fullerene-based acceptors, which themselves have issues with cost, stability ...

My current research portfolio consists of work ranging from nanoscale electro‐optic modulators to 40 square meter hybrid solar energy systems. A common theme that cuts across this 10 order of magnitude change in length scale is the coupling of fundamental optical materials and device physics to emerging applications with significant impact. The Photonic Materials and Device Lab (PMDL) is consta...

Molybdenum and tungsten diselenide are among the most robust and efficient semiconductor materials for photoelectrochemistry, but they have seen limited use for integrated solar energy storage systems. Herein, we report that n-type WSe2 photoelectrodes can facilitate unassisted aqueous HI electrolysis to H2(g) and HI3(aq) when placed in contact with a platinum counter electrode and illuminated ...