Rational design of next-generation energy materials at UB CBE
Spectroscopic characterization of light-initiated processes
The Institute on Research and Education in Energy, Environment and Water (RENEW) at UB aims to advance energy, water, and environmental sustainability as a foundation for a regenerative economy through innovative interdisciplinary research across UB Schools in select focus areas.
The vision of the RENEW focus area on “Next-Generation Materials for Energy, Environment & Water,” led by Professor Michel Dupuis (CBE), is to establish UB expertise and excellence in rational design of nextgeneration materials through closely integrated modeling and experimental research.
Materials design and discovery holds a critical place in the 21st century economy, with broad impact spanning the transportation,
health, microelectronic, and renewable energy industries. Creating novel materials with combinations of properties
that meet tailored functionalities and enhanced performance is a multidisciplinary challenge that requires
rational design, e.g. development and use of computational tools validated through materials synthesis, characterization, and device-like
measurements to accelerate the design,discovery, and time-to-market of new materials and devices.
A seed project involving CBE Faculty aims to demonstrate rational materials design for novel and promising chalcogenidebased
photovoltaics systems. Professors Akimov (CHEM), Dupuis (CBE, CDSE), and Furlani (CBE, EE) will focus on computational
band structure engineering, career transport, and system modeling, Zeng (PHYS), Petrou (PHYS), and Mitin (EE) will focus
on synthesis, characterization, and device measurements.
