Friday, April 28th, 2023 Ismaila Dabo on Data-Intensive Discovery of Earth-Abundant Semiconductors for Solar-to-Hydrogen Conversion

Penn State Professor Ismaila Dabo will speak on Data-Intensive Discovery of Earth-Abundant Semiconductors for Solar-to-Hydrogen Conversion. Renewable and sustainable solar generation of hydrogen is pivotal to diversifying the global energy supply away from fossil fuels in the transportation sector and across major branches of the industry, including ammonia synthesis, process metallurgy, and hydrocarbon production. While photovoltaics and electrolysis are increasingly mature technologies whose association may ultimately offer a viable path to produce hydrogen at scale, there is increasing debate over building a future hydrogen infrastructure that would massively rely on critical Pt-group metals and on photovoltaic devices, whose supply chains and global markets are largely controlled by non-domestic producers. Thus, there is strategic interest in developing novel classes of scalable semiconductors that can directly cleave water into oxygen and hydrogen under solar illumination by photocatalytic means. This presentation will discuss the use of data-intensive materials discovery workflow for narrowing down the choice of candidate semiconductors for solar hydrogen generation. Progress in predicting the optical properties of compound semiconductors will also be highlighted.

Ismaila Dabo is an Associate Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Penn State University with joint appointments in the Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment, and in the Penn State Materials Research Institute. He received a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from MIT in 2008, working under the supervision of Nicola Marzari on the first-principles modeling of electrochemical solid–liquid interfaces. His recent awards include the Wilson Teaching Excellence Award (2021), Materials Science and Engineering Faculty of the Year Award (2021), Corning Chair in Materials Science and Engineering (2020). He currently serves on the editorial board of the journals Computational Materials Science (Elsevier) and Science (AAAS).

Friday, January 27th, 2023 Eric Miller on Hydrogen

Eric Miller, Chief Scientist U.S. Department of Energy’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office will speak about the DOE program HydroGEN, Materials Research Supporting U.S. National Priorities in Clean Hydrogen Production. Today, technologies for advancing National clean energy priorities are rapidly evolving, including hydrogen and fuel cell technologies which offer unique versatility within a portfolio of domestic options addressing decarbonization, economic growth, and environmental justice. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Hydrogen Program, in support of the Hydrogen Energy Earthshot (aka the Hydrogen Shot) and the H2@Scale initiative, comprises a broad portfolio of research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D) activities focused on advancing technologies for the affordable production, storage, distribution, and utilization of clean hydrogen across sectors. Coordinated by the Department’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office, this portfolio includes foundational materials research and development (R&D) leveraging consortia that harness the world-class capabilities and expertise of our national laboratories, including consortia affiliated with the DOE Energy Materials Network (EMN). The HydroGEN EMN Consortia, for example, aims to accelerate the materials R&D of advanced water splitting pathways such as alkaline exchange membrane low-temperature electrolysis and proton-conducting high-temperature electrolysis, as well as photoelectrochemical, and solar thermochemical processes. This talk presents an overview of the DOE Hydrogen Program’s priorities in support of H2@Scale and the Hydrogen Shot, and discusses the HydroGEN Consortium’s high-impact materials R&D to enable diverse options for affordable clean hydrogen production.

Dr. Eric L. Miller is Chief Scientist at the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, where he plays important roles in the Department’s Hydrogen Energy Earthshot and H2@Scale Initiatives. He is also co-founder and Chair of the DOE Energy Materials Network, and a member of the OSTP Subcommittee on the Material Genome Initiative. With a background in applied physics, electrical engineering, and materials science, he has spent over 30 years in the research and development of hydrogen and other clean energy technologies; and is globally recognized as a pioneer in the field of solar hydrogen production.