Head
Nofrijon Sofyan, Ph.D.
Focus
Development of Nano-structural materials to be used in the renewable energy applications, more specifically in photovoltaic devices.
Main Topics
- Synthesis and characterizations of nanostructural inorganic semiconductor oxide materials through simple but versatile wet-chemistry techniques.
- Exploring the potential of Indonesia local minerals as resources for semiconductor nanostructure materials and designing the feasible fabrication techniques.
- Integration the synthesized nanostructured materials into the photovoltaic devices.
Research Projects
- The development of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods growing directly on transparent conducting oxide (TCO) substrates by using chemical bath deposition (CBD) and post-hydrothermal techniques. The synthesized nanorods are used as either :
- semiconductor oxide layer in the dye synthesized solar cell (DSSC), or
- anti-reflective coating (ARC) in the commercial silicon based solar cell.
- The synthesis and characterization of mesoporous TiO2 by using ilmenite mineral from Bangka Island for dye sensitized solar cell and photo-catalysis applications.
- Performance test of the assembled photovoltaic prototypes (I-V curve, light-electricity conversion efficiency), in collaboration with Dept. of Physics-Universitas Negeri Sebelas Maret (UNS)-Solo.
Methodological Approach
- The research projects in the group are mainly based on experimental works in the laboratory, followed with careful characterizations with sophisticated instrumental tools. The synthesis of nanostructured materials are realized through “chimie douce”, wet-chemistry approaches including sol-gel, hydrothermal, chemical bath deposition, surfactant templating.
- Further analyses are carried out to optimize the suitable and desired nanostructural materials for the photovoltaic applications. Integration the synthesized nanostructured materials into the prototypes and their testings are taken to correlate the material aspects and the performance of devices .
