ConvEne: Research Themes
Researchers at UCSB are at the forefront of research and educational efforts to prepare and utilize novel materials for energy conversion and to study the economic and environmental implications of energy-related technologies. This expertise is accompanied by a growing recognition of the social and economic importance of energy. A major goal of the scientific community here at UCSB is increasing energy efficiency and harnessing renewable energy sources, especially through catalysts and devices for converting solar energy into electricity and fuels. The Research components of the ConvEne IGERT are organized into interdisciplinary, multi-investigator Projects that are self-contained, and often serve as one or more thesis projects for IGERT trainees. Each Project is designed to promote multidimensional intellectual formation of a graduate student’s career. This list is suggestive rather than exclusive.
- Project 1
- Novel Donor and Acceptor Materials for Photovoltaics (Hawker and Wudl)
- Project 2
- Nanoscale Patterning to Control Charge Separation and Mobility in Photovoltaics (Hawker and Stucky)
- Project 3
- Controlling Donor/Acceptor Morphology in Photovoltaics by Alkane Dithiol Processing (Bazan and Nguyen)
- Project 4
- Materials Characterization of Photovoltaics and Photovoltaic Device Engineering (Nguyen and Heeger)
- Project 5
- Hybrid Photovoltaics Based on Quantum Dots (Stucky and Nguyen)
- Project 6
- Computer-Aided Search for New Photoelectrochemical Materials (van de Walle and McFarland)
- Project 7
- Platinum Group Metal-Doped Oxides — Reducing PGM Use in Energy Catalysis (Scott and Seshadri)
- Project 8
- New Metal Core/Oxide Shell Catalysts for Cleaner Fuel Use (Stucky and Seshadri)
- Project 9
- Transition Metal-Doped Hydrotalcite Materials for Biomass Conversion to Fuels and Chemicals (Ford, McFarland, and Scott)
- Project 10
- Energy-Savings, Policy, and the Practice of Daylight Savings Time (Kotchen, Delmas, and Libecap)