Jianbo Gao envisions a future the place solar energy will be generated by a movie thinner than a hair – and his workforce is working to make it a actuality.
Integrated into the tops of vehicles, home windows and lots of different surfaces, movie wires plug in, and juice, cellphones, tablets, vehicles and anything that wants electrical energy.
This is the brand new photo voltaic panel know-how that Gao and his worldwide analysis workforce have developed that’s inexpensive and extra environmentally pleasant than standard photo voltaic panels and that “goals to energy individuals utilizing ample free photo voltaic power,” he stated.
By utilizing superior supplies, “we will double the effectivity of solar energy technology,” stated the Assistant Professor of Chemistry. “This new materials is a really versatile coat that may even be worn on clothes, so your garments can generate electrical energy.”
Gao was awarded Brock University’s 2024 Award for Early Career Research and Creative Activity for his work within the subject of photovoltaics, a way of changing daylight into electrical energy.
“Through his breakthrough work, Dr. Gao goals to resolve local weather change and the power disaster, could also be two of essentially the most difficult problems with our time,” stated Acting Vice-President, Research Michelle McGinn. “His analysis focuses on creating extremely environment friendly and reasonably priced photo voltaic cells utilizing the most secure, cleanest and most ample photo voltaic power.”
Gao, additionally an Affiliated Professor within the Yousef Haj-Ahmad Department of Engineering, got here to Brock in 2022 from Clemson University in South Carolina, the place he was Assistant Professor of Physics. Before that, he was a Research Associate Specialist on the University of California at Berkeley.
Gao was a pioneer within the introduction of quantum dots in photo voltaic cells. Quantum dots are nanocrystals, man-made crystals which are among the many smallest issues on earth.
These nanocrystals act as semiconductors which will also be the long run LED know-how. Semiconductors are particular chemical substances that transmit electrical currents between conductors, normally metals, and an insulator, akin to ceramics.
One class of nanocrystals is named perovskite nanocrystalline, which has properties that Gao and his workforce have decided are significantly efficient at capturing and changing daylight into power.
Perovskite nanocrystalline will be sprayed into very skinny, versatile sheets of plastic that may be positioned in a number of areas, he stated.
In addition to lowering the necessity for fossil fuels by acquiring power from the solar, Gao’s need is to create “free electrical energy.”
“Hundreds of hundreds of thousands of individuals around the globe should not have entry to electrical energy,” he stated. “Electricity improves individuals’s lives. They can use the cash they pay for electrical energy to purchase meals and different requirements.”
Gao’s work has been extensively revealed. Over the previous six years, he has produced 34 peer-reviewed journal articles, with greater than 6,000 citations, in prestigious science journals akin to Science, Nature Physics, Nature Communications and Nano Letters.
During that point, he additionally mentored eight PhD college students, two grasp’s college students and 13 undergraduate college students in areas akin to superior laser spectroscopy, nanomaterials synthesis and novel gadget growth.
“Dr. defined Gao is a pure chief and inspiration to college students who’re shaping the following technology of innovators to proceed to advance this vital subject,” McGinn stated.
The Early-Career Research and Creative Activity Award, valued at $5,000, is funded by the Office of the Vice-President, Research and the Brock University Faculty Association to acknowledge excellence and promise in analysis, scholarly exercise and artistic efficiency and contribution to the coaching or mentoring of future students.
