Colloquium Prof. Ismaila Dabo, Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University

Speaker: Prof. Ismaila Dabo, Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University

Title: Computational Modeling and Screening of Semiconductor Electrodes for Solar-to-Fuel Conversion

Abstract: Solar energy is the most abundant energy source available to humankind, but this energy cannot be harnessed on demand due to the variability of sunlight. Artificial photosynthesis overcomes that variability through the direct photocatalytic storage of solar power into chemical fuels. Nevertheless, most of the stable photocatalysts in use today rely on metal oxide semiconductors whose bandgap does not match the solar spectrum. This presentation will discuss the development and validation of a joint computational–experimental protocol to understand, predict, and optimize visible-light-active materials that can split water into hydrogen and oxygen with a focus on solar compatibility using electronic-structure methods beyond density-functional theory and electrochemical stability by exploiting quantum-continuum embedding methods.

Bio: Ismaila Dabo graduated with a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2008. His doctoral research was dedicated to predicting the electrical response of quantum systems in electrochemical environments and to studying chemical poisoning in low-temperature fuel cells. After graduation, Ismaila Dabo became a postdoctoral researcher and then a permanent researcher at Ecole des Ponts ParisTech, University of Paris-Est (France). He joined the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Pennsylvania State University in 2013. His awards include the NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award (2017) and the Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Award (2014)