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Research presentation by Dr. Mahesh Dawadi
March 8 @ 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Black Hawk College chemistry instructor Dr. Mahesh Dawadi will present his research on dye-sensitized solar cells for efficient power generation and their potential application to consumer electronics at an American Chemical Society meeting at Black Hawk College.
Wednesday, March 8
Quad-Cities Campus
Sustainable Technologies Building, Rooms 113-114
6:30-7 p.m. – Conversation and snacks (including a mysterious chemistry snack)
7-9 p.m. – Presentation
For more information, contact Dr. Alan Abbott at abbotta@bhc.edu or 309-854-1812.
About the presentation:
The possibility of converting solar energy into electricity as a means of renewable and clean energy source is considered as one of the mechanisms to solve the environmental pollution problem and energy crisis. The dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) offer the efficient and ease of implementation of new technology for future energy supply. Herein, four commercially available dyes including, curcumin, betanin, crystal violet, methylene blue and their compositions were used as sensitizers for fabrication of titanium oxide photo anode based DSSCs. All dyes were fully characterized using absorption and emission spectroscopy. Both DFT and TDDFT studies were also carried out to probe the electronic structure of these dyes. The power conversion efficiencies of each DSSCs prepared using the individual and composited dyes were measured and compared. Particularly, this is the first study to combine four different dyes for DSSCs, leading to a remarkable increase of power conversion efficiency. The DSSCs with combined curcumin, betanin, crystal violet, and methylene blue (in 1:1:1:1 respectively) in ethanol exhibited the highest power conversion efficiency of 3.62%. Finally, this talk also includes some potential applications of DSSCs to the consumer electronics.
About the speaker:
Dr. Mahesh B. Dawadi received his master’s degree in organic chemistry from the Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal, and second master’s degree and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of Akron in 2014. He served as a post-doctoral research associate at the University of Akron. After his post-doctoral research, he joined University of Texas Rio Grande Valley as a lecturer and moved to Earlham College in 2019 as a visiting assistant professor. He began teaching at Black Hawk College in Fall 2022.
At Black Hawk College, he primarily teaches general chemistry and physical science courses. Dr. Dawadi is a strong advocate of student-centered active learning and continually strives to inspire students. Dr. Dawadi’s research interests include organic photochemistry, environmental chemistry, archaeology, and computation chemistry. He mentored several undergraduate research projects. His research efforts have led to more than 40 peer-review publications and conference presentations.