 | Identifying next-generation materials to harness solar energy: A quantum chemical and machine learning approachSeminar by Steven A. Lopez, Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology of the Northeastern University, Boston. His research is based on the use of quantum mechanical and machine learning techniques to identify next-generation organic materials for applications in renewable energy. Organic materials are of great interest because they are highly abundant, low-cost, and flexible. His group uses quantum mechanical calculations and molecular dynamics simulations to describe the relative crystallinity of organic semiconducting materials, which is known to substantially affect fundamental electronic processes in organic solar cells. They extend these calculations to provide atomistic descriptions of buried, donor-acceptor interfaces. Chemical intuition is used to fine-tune molecular interactions to ultimately control local interfacial disorder for highly-effective, low-cost organic solar cells. |
