Abstract:
This presentation describes two separate research projects in my group. I will first introduce the innately interdisciplinary nature of the field of electrochemistry and highlight how it is a perfect area for students with skill sets in advanced math, coding, & instrumentation and a desire to work on renewable energy strategies. I will then describe the first project, where my group is developing a wholly new and disruptive technology for growing solar grade Si. The crux of this work is to realize that by replacing thermal gradients with electrochemical gradients, it is possible to grow semiconductor crystals in an environmentally friendly and inexpensive manner. I will then finish with a second project where my group has developed a new mathematical framework to understand electron transfer between semiconductors and molecules. This work is rooted in the development of dye-sensitized solar cells and artificial photosynthetic reactors. We would like to refine our preliminary model and then integrate our preliminary algorithm with pattern recognition.