Research
Population increases and rising standards of living demand more energy than that can be supplied by fossil fuels, due to their limited reserves and adverse environmental impact. Renewable energy from solar power represents one of the last reliable sources for the long-term prosperity. However, existing technologies are either too expensive or too inefficient, making them economically prohibitive. The key to breaking the cost-efficiency dilemma, thus to the access of terra watts energy from the Sun, is expected to lie in novel materials that are of relevant length scales to the energy-related processes such as charge separation, transport and recombination - nanoscale. We focus our research on materials in this scale and strive to apply them into applications of high-efficiency solar energy conversions. Our efforts are to create new structures and to provide scientific understandings that will eventually pave the way to low cost renewable energy without devastating the environment.
The research in the Wang lab bridges the conventional disciplines of chemistry (in material synthesis), physics (property characterizations) and engineering (device constructions). The interdisciplinary nature requires that our group members need to broadly learn various knowledge in the related fields. It provides invaluable training to prepare participating researchers ready for the next steps of their career goals, as well.