狐狸视频

(photo by Marit Mitchell)

Polanyi Prize goes to U of T researcher for his work on more efficient solar materials

Engineering postdoc one of five recognized as outstanding Ontario researchers in early states of their careers

Riccardo Comin, a postdoctoral fellow in , has won the for his research into a rapidly emerging new class of materials, called perovskites, for more efficient solar cells and lighting.

The Polanyi Prizes are given annually to outstanding researchers in the early stages of their careers. The prizes, worth $20,000 each, are awarded in five areas: physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and economic science. Comin is the only recipient from the 狐狸视频 this year. (.)

鈥淏y scientific upbringing, I鈥檓 a solid state physicist,鈥 said Comin. 鈥淚 take new compounds, films or crystals, crafted by chemists, and I analyze them to figure out what鈥檚 special about those materials.鈥

Comin鈥檚 work, under the direction of Professor Ted Sargent, is to investigate the mysterious properties of a very special family of hybrid organic-inorganic materials called perovskites. Perovskites show great promise for a range of applications, from more efficient LED technologies to high-efficiency flexible and lightweight solar cells.

Read more about Comin鈥檚 recent work, published in the journals Science and Nature:

鈥淢y work in the Sargent Group has been to explore various key characteristics of perovskites, including their chemical composition, crystalline structure, and electronic structure,鈥 said Comin. 鈥淭hanks to the Polanyi Prize, I plan to expand my work into using x-ray methods to look at the collective phenomena involving the reorientation of the organic molecules embedded in the inorganic crystalline structure of these hybrid materials.鈥

Comin earned his bachelor鈥檚 and master鈥檚 degrees at the Universita degli Studi di Trieste in Italy, both in physics. He completed his PhD at the University of British Columbia under the supervision of Andrea Damascelli, where he worked on characterizing quantum materials. When he joined the Sargent Group for his postdoctoral fellowship, he was ready to take a more applied approach to his research.

鈥淚鈥檇 done a lot of fundamental materials science, and I was thinking, 鈥榃hat are the strategies and processes involved in harnessing and functionalizing the material properties that are key for devices that realize solar, imaging or lighting applications?鈥欌 he said 鈥淗ere, we鈥檙e trying not just to develop high-quality materials, but also to combine them into device architectures that use the best properties of these materials. Ultimately, the metric for the quality of the work is the efficiency and performance of our devices.鈥

The John Charles Polanyi prize was created in honour of the achievement of John Charles Polanyi, recipient of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and a professor in the 狐狸视频鈥檚 department of chemistry.

鈥淢y congratulations to Riccardo, who is doing exceptional research,鈥 said Professor Sargent, vice-dean, research for the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, and Comin鈥檚 supervisor.

鈥淚t鈥檚 particularly wonderful to see him honoured with this award, named after one of the greatest investigators in the 狐狸视频鈥檚 long history.鈥

Marit Mitchell is a writer with the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering at the 狐狸视频

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