Prof. Jeffrey Grossman, MIT Materials Science and Engineering, gives a talk hosted by APhys.

Materials Design for Applications in Solar and Thermal Energy

Current renewable energy conversion and storage technologies are too expensive, too inefficient, or both, substantially limiting their use and global impact. At the core of these challenges is a materials choice: many of the key mechanisms are dominated by the intrinsic properties of the active materials involved. Our imperative is thus to predict, identify and manufacture new materials and designs as comprehensively and rapidly as possible. Toward that end, we use a combination of computational and experimental approaches that serve to elucidate fundamental mechanisms that govern the efficiency in these materials in order to design and demonstrate new concepts and solutions. Examples of our recent work in the areas of solar photovoltaics and solar thermal fuels will be presented.

Lunch will be provided.