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Rising water demands and depleting freshwater resources have brought desalination and wastewater treatment technologies to the forefront. For sustainable water management, there is a global push towards Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) with the…
Recent rapid progress in efficiencies for solar water splitting by photoelectrochemical devices has enhanced its prospects to enable storable renewable energy. Efficient solar fuel generators all use tandem photoelectrode structures, and…
Single-layer molybdenum disulfide ($MoS_2$) possesses significant potential for nanoscale optoelectronics, but achieving high-intensity, long-term-stable photoluminescence (PL) emission remains a challenge. In this work, we demonstrate a…
The photothermal properties of MXenes originate from their high free electron concentration, which drives localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). However, their intrinsic electron concentration is limited by suboptimal d-orbital…
Although photoelectrochemical water splitting is likely to be an important and powerful tool to provide environmentally friendly hydrogen, most developments in this field have been conducted on a laboratory scale so far. In order for the…
In this thesis, two different optical management techniques for organics based solar cells are explored. The first part is focused on the development of a textured rear reflector for OPVs. The use of textured reflector (TR) facilitates an…
The recent discovery of semiconducting two-dimensional materials has led to the prediction of a revolution in the field of optoelectronics, driven by the introduction of a series of new components that are just a few atoms thick. Key…
Since air-water and water-air interfaces are equally refractive, cloud droplets and microbubbles dispersed in bodies of water reflect sunlight in much the same way. The lifetime of sunlight-reflecting microbubbles, and hence the scale on…
The fabrication of heterogeneous photocatalysts has received increasing research interest due to their potential applications for the degradation of organic pollutants in wastewater and the evolution of carbon-free hydrogen fuel via water…
The search for highly effective and environmentally safe photocatalysts for water splitting and photovoltaic solar cells is essential for renewable solar energy conversion and storage. Based on first principles calculations, we show that…
Recent synthesis of monolayer fullerene networks [$Nature$ 606, 507 (2022)] provides new opportunities for photovoltaics and photocatalysis because of their versatile crystal structures for further tailoring of electronic, optical and…
Purpose: To demonstrate an alternative to the rinse and rub (RR) method for cleaning pollutants from the exterior surface of soft contact lenses. This proposed technique is termed Polymer on Polymer Pollutant Removal (PoPPR), which utilizes…
In last decades, solar stills, as one of the solar desalination technologies, have been well studied in terms of their productivity, efficiency and economics. Recently, to overcome the bottleneck of traditional solar still, improving solar…
Silica aerogels are nanoporous materials with exceptional optical and physical properties, making them promising candidates to enhance solar cell efficiency as antireflective coatings. This study synthesized hydrophobic silica aerogel thin…
There is a growing interest in obtaining high quality monolayer transition metal disulfides (TMDSs) for optoelectronic device applications. Surface chemical treatments using a range of chemicals on monolayer TMDSs have proven effective to…
We report the discovery of photomolecular effect: cleavage of water clusters off surfaces by photons. This effect is demonstrated through surprising absorption of partially wetted hydrogel in the visible spectrum where both water and…
Metalenses are optical devices that implement nanostructures as phase shifters to focus incident light. Their compactness and simple fabrication make them a potential cost-effective solution for increasing light collection efficiency in…
Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology has merged as an efficient and versatile method for converting the Sun's vast energy into electricity. Innovation in developing new materials and solar cell architectures is required to ensure lightweight,…
The detection and classification of microplastics in water remain a significant challenge due to their diverse properties and the limitations of traditional optical methods. Standard spectroscopic techniques often suffer from the strong…
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and a major driver of climate change, making its timely detection critical for effective mitigation. Machine learning (ML) deployed onboard satellites can enable rapid detection while reducing downlink…