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Congratulations to CISSEM Director Neal Armstrong on his promotion to Regents’ Professor. The title of Regents’ Professor is reserved for faculty members with exceptional achievements that have brought them national and international distinction and is conferred on no more than 3% of the total number of tenured and tenure track faculty members at the University of Arizona.
Read the UANews article “UA Regents’ Professors Named in College of Science, Eller College of Management.”
Congratulations to CISSEM graduate student Lingzi Sang of the Pemberton research group, recipient of the Carl S. Marvel Fellowship for 2013-14 at the University of Arizona. This prestigious Fellowship honors a Chemistry & Biochemistry graduate student and is awarded following a competitive selection process and a formal seminar competition among the finalists. Lingzi presented her CISSEM-funded research to study the orientation of phosphonic acid self-assembled monolayers on transparent conducting oxide substrates by PM-IRRAS (polarization modulation infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy). CISSEM graduate student Luis Oquendo of the McGrath research group was also one of the three finalists.
Research funded as part of CISSEM at the University of Arizona (Armstrong) has demonstrated a low complexity and scalable UV-activated chemical vapor deposition (CVD) approach to TiO2 high quality, conformal, electron-selective interlayer thin films (12–36 nm). Using (cyclic voltammetry) electrochemical studies with three different probe molecules, CISSEM researchers show the amorphous but stoichiometric TiO2 interlayers are hole-blocking and electron-transporting, whereas the underlying ITO readily oxidizes/reduces all three probe molecules. These probe-molecule studies are excellent, yet easily accessible, indicators of undesired TiO2 film porosity and predictors of the electron harvesting (and hole-blocking) desired for TiO2 interlayers in OPVs.
Welcome to the Center for Interface Science: Solar Electric Materials. We are an EFRC established in 2009, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences which contribute to our nation’s development of economical, terawatt-level solar energy sources for the 21st century. CISSEM is comprised of a great team of scientists, engineers, and staff located at major universities and research centers in Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, New Jersey, and Washington. An integral part of our mission is to inspire, recruit, and train future energy scientists and leaders in the basic science of solar electric energy conversion. Our research is focused on the basic science underpinning the development of thin-film photovoltaic energy conversion technologies by understanding and controlling the electronic properties of critical regions called “interfaces” on nanometer length scales. The chemical composition and energetics of these interfaces significantly affect the overall efficiency and lifetime of solar cells.
Neal R. Armstrong
