Molecular Foundry Seminar

"Quantum Mechanics Based Design Concepts for Improved Materials for Energy Applications"

Professor Emily Carter, Departments of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
and Applied and Computational Mathematics, Princeton University,
Tuesday, November 2nd at 1:30 pm, Bldg. 66 - Auditorium

View the Foundry Seminar Schedule

Abstract:

If we are to survive as a species on this planet, we must make major science and engineering breakthroughs in the way we harvest, store, and use energy. Many of the advances must come in the areas of materials science and the physics and chemistry of materials. This talk begins with an overview of my own research efforts in this direction, which entail: optimizing materials to improve efficiency of jet turbine engines used for power generation, characterizing combustion of biofuels and tritium incorporation in fusion reactor walls, optimizing mechanical properties of lightweight metal alloys for use in vehicles to improve their fuel efficiency, optimizing ion and electron transport in solid oxide fuel cell cathodes, and designing novel materials from abundant elements for photovoltaics and photocatalysts to convert sunlight into electricity and fuels. Fast and accurate quantum mechanics methods developed in my group that enable the treatment of large biofuel molecules and the mesoscale defects in metals that control mechanical properties will be briefly discussed. The remainder of the talk will provide examples of key metrics we calculate to help design efficient new materials for photovoltaics, photocatalysts, and solid oxide fuel cells. These metrics are already pointing us toward which dopants or alloys are likely to provide the most efficient energy conversion materials.