Bio
Melissa Ball received her doctorate in chemistry from Columbia University under Professor Colin Nuckolls. Her thesis focused on structure-function relationships between molecular design of organic small molecules and organic electronics. At her time at Columbia, she co-authored over ten publications and was awarded the Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching for her efforts in the classroom. Melissa joined the Loo Group at Princeton University as a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow in 2019. Her work in the Loo Group centers on the design of UV absorbers for transparent photovoltaic devices. These devices can be used as the power source for smart windows or for applications where color neutrality is a primary objective.

Abstract
Solar technologies will play an important role in helping us meet our goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. While silicon is the workhorse of the solar energy field, technologies built on emerging materials can both supplement silicon, as deployment demands will be great in the coming decades, and also address energy markets not accessible to silicon. This talk will cover two areas of research that demonstrate the potential for novel solar technologies to provide solutions for our energy and environmental future. First, I will show how manipulating the organic cation in two-dimensional perovskites allows control of structural properties that, in turn, affect materials properties and produce high efficiency solar devices. Second, I will discuss our work on design and synthesis of donor absorber materials that serve as the basis for transparent photovoltaics. The resulting solar cells are the most color neutral and transparent photovoltaics to-date.

About the New Light Series
New Light: Rising Stars in Energy and the Environment is a summer webinar series to spotlight associate research scholars, postdoctoral research fellows, and other early-career researchers affiliated with the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment. Weekly webinars feature a diverse range of researchers working on cutting-edge topics across disciplines who seek to solve society’s most pressing problems in energy and the environment. View the full line-up.

This talk is co-sponsored by the Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society at Dartmouth.