Solar Energy Research Group
Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT-Madras
1. Thin-film Photoelectrochemical Solar cells
Photoelectrochemical solar cells are a class of electrochemical devices that converts incident photons to electricity. We are interested in exploring two different aspects of this system, one, to develop new oxide/sulfide/coordination-framework absorber materials and, next to understand the fundamental electron transfer dynamics at the interface of semiconductor-electrolyte and finding ways to improve the photovoltaic conversion efficiency. Typical solar cells in this category including, dye-sensitized, quantum-dot sensitized, and other thin-absorber solar cells.
2. Thin-film Solid-state Solar cells
Monolithic thin films solar cells based on organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites (CH3NH3PbI3) attracted immense interest because they exhibit incredibly high efficiency, beyond 20%. Our group's interest is to understand the recombination dynamics of photogenerated charge carriers in these devices and to improve the device efficiency by modifying the semiconductor-perovskite interface. Looking beyond, we are also keen to develop new hybrid perovskite materials free of heavy elements including Pb, and to improve the device stability for long term performance.
3. Solar Fuels - Water Splitting & CO2 reduction
Solar water splitting and CO2 reduction are two important ways to store solar energy, in the form of chemical fuels. Fundamental issues of these photoelectrochemical systems include, low solar-to-fuel conversion efficiency, poor device stability and, insufficient catalytic activity for oxidation and/or reduction reactions. We are interested in addressing these issues by developing new visible/near-IR absorbers, selective catalysts and by tuning the interface between photoelectrodes/catalyst and electrolyte.