Munday, Hu and Collaborators’ Research on Inside Cover of Advanced Energy Materials

Advanced Engineering Materials Cover on Cellulose Fiber Paper and Solar Cells

Assistant Professors Jeremy N. Munday and Liangbing Hu recently collaborated on research in the field of solar energy which is featured on the inside cover of both the digital and print editions of the June 24 issue of Advanced Energy Materials. Munday is an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and the Institute of Research in Electronics and Applied Physics (IREAP) at the University of Maryland. He directs the Munday Lab. Hu is an assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering where he directs the Bing Research Group.

In the feature article, Munday and his collaborators describe the use of a plant-based cellulose fiber paper as advanced antireflection coatings for solar cells. These coatings provide broadband, angle-independent optical response using a simple and inexpensive fabrication process. These cellulose materials are also lightweight, flexible and recyclable, making them highly attractive materials for environmentally friendly production.

Hu had been working to create various cellulose-based papers; Munday and his team were studying their optical properties. “Once we realized that we could achieve high transmission and high scattering from a single type of paper, we immediately thought about solar applications,” said Munday. Their initial results show that the papers work as simple and inexpensive antireflection coatings; however, more work is necessary to determine their robustness in outdoor environments and to determine how low the team can get the reflectivity. “In the future, we would like to create thin stacks of these transparent papers with different porosity to grade the index of refraction. This would have the potential to decrease reflection significantly below 10%,” said Munday.

Both Munday and Hu are members of the University of Maryland Energy Research Center. Their co-authors are Dongheon Ha and Zhiqiang Fang. Ha is a graduate student in ECE and IREAP working under Munday’s supervision. Fang worked as a visiting Ph.D. student at the University of Maryland from State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering at South China University of Technology. He works with Professor Hu.

Advanced Energy Materials is an international, interdisciplinary, English-language forum of original peer-reviewed contributions on materials used in all forms of energy harvesting, conversion and storage. Advanced Energy Materials received an initial impact factor of 10.043 from a standing start. The top-quality journal covers all topics in energy-related research.

Published June 26, 2014