New Delhi:
A US-based alumnus of M S University added a feather to his research credentials by becoming the first young scientist of Indian origin to receive the prestigious 'Resonate Award' for outstanding achievement in renewable energy
Dr Aditya Mohite, who is currently working as a scientist with the Los Alamos Research Institute in New Mexico State, has bagged the award for his path breaking research in nano tubes for solar energy. The award is conferred by the Resnick Sustainability Institute of the California Institute of Technology.
Aditya, who had completed his M.Sc in electronics and communication from the Department of Physics in 2002-04, is son of professor Prerna Mohite, former dean of MSU's Faculty of Family and Community Sciences and professor Dilip Mohite, who had served as dean of MSU's Faculty of Arts.
His research promises to significantly bring down the cost of solar cells and simultaneously also increase its efficiency. "Aditya has fabricated planar solar cells from perovskite materials with large crystalline grains that had efficiencies approaching 18 percent - among the highest reported in the field of perovskite-based light-to-energy conversion devices.
These single-crystalline semiconductors are grown by sophisticated, high-temperature crystal-growth processes. The crystalline quality is on par with that observed for high-quality semiconductors like silicon and gallium arsenides," said professor Dinesh Kanchan, director of MSU's research and consultancy cell.
"In fact, just last year, I had invited him for his lecture at our department for the same research which he had done as group leaders of the research team at Los Alamos. We are proud that after one and a half year, he has bagged the award for the same research," said Kanchan.
The perovskite material that Aditya has developed has increased efficiency of solar cells to 18 % which is much more than the solar cells developed using silicon material which have capacity ranging from 10 to 13 %. "Also, since carbon material is easily available, the solar cells developed through perovskite material, are 30 to 40 % cheaper," added Kanchan.
