Project Description 

The ability to efficiently manage the flow of thermal energy is crucial to numerous applications ranging from microelectronic devices to energy storage and energy conversion devices. Halide perovskite materials have attracted significant attention for photovoltaic and optoelectronic technologies. However, limited experimental investigations of thermal transport in halide perovskites have impeded fundamental understanding of thermal transport processes in these materials and developing thermal management strategies needed for the viable development of applications such as thermal barrier coatings, thermoelectric, photovoltaic, and optoelectronic devices. Moreover, thermal transport properties are expected to be fundamentally different between the hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites and conventional inorganic or organic semiconductors because of the differing behavior of the polyatomic organic cations inside an inorganic lattice matrix. 

In this joint project, we will fabricate thin film devices using a variety of organic-inorganic hybrid halide perovskite materials and study their fundamental thermal and electrical transport properties. We will also demonstrate complete thermoelectric energy conversion devices using new materials we identified through the fundamental study. Candidates are also encouraged to generate related new ideas.

Start Date

May 2020

Postdoc Qualifications

The successful candidate should have strong experimental and theoretical background in organic-inorganic materials synthesis, and their related thermal, electrical property characterizations.

Co-advisors

Prof. Luna Lu
Lyles School of Civil Engineering
Materials Engineering

Prof. Letian Dou
Davison School of Chemical Engineering

References

Jia Lin, Minliang Lai, Letian Dou, Christopher S. Kley, Hong Chen, Fei Peng, Junliang Sun, Dylan Lu, Steven A. Hawks, Chenlu Xie, Fan Cui, A. Paul Alivisatos, David T. Limmer, Peidong Yang; “Thermochromic halide perovskite solar cells”, Nature Materials 2018, doi:10.1038/s41563-017-0006-0.

Cun-Zheng Ning, Letian Dou, Peidong Yang; “Bandgap engineering in semiconductor alloy nanomaterials with widely tunable compositions”, Nature Reviews Materials 2017, 2, 17070.

Letian Dou, Andrew B. Wong, Yi Yu, Minliang Lai, Nikolay Kornienko, Samuel W. Eaton, Anthony Fu, Connor G. Bischak, Jie Ma, Tina Ding, Naomi S. Ginsberg, Lin-Wang Wang, A. Paul Alivisatos, Peidong Yang; “Atomically Thin Two-dimensional Organic-inorganic Hybrid Perovskites”, Science 2015, 349, 1518-1521.

Y. Feng, A. Elquist, P. Yue, KZ. Gao, I. Ferguson, A. Tzempelikos, and N. Lu. “Temperature Dependent Thermoelectric Properties of Cuprous Delafossite Oxides”. Composites Part B: Engineering 2019, 156, 108-112. 

E. Witkoske, D. Guzman, Y. Feng, A. Strachan, M. Lundstrom, and N. Lu. “The Use of Strain to Tailor Electronic Thermoelectric Transport Properties: A First Principles Study of 2H Phase CuAlO2”. Journal of Applied Physics 2019, 125, 082531.