Henry J. Snaith of the University of Oxford has been named the 2014 Materials Research Society (MRS) Outstanding Young Investigator. Snaith was cited for “innovation and development of solid state dye sensitized solar cells and for his groundbreaking work in perovskite hybrid solar cells.” He will present his award talk at the 2014 Materials Research Society Spring Meeting in San Francisco on April 24 at 12:45 p.m. in Salon 7 of the Marriott Marquis.
During his research at the University of Cambridge, Snaith demonstrated growth of dye-sensitized solar cells from perfectly organized nanoporous titanium dioxide, formed by templated growth onto a self-organized diblock copolymer. Since then, his achievements include the first demonstration of “gyroid” structured titania for dye solar cells, the first demonstration of mesoporous single crystals of anatase TiO2, and the recent discovery of high-efficiency solid-state organometal trihalide perovskite-based thin film and mesosuperstructured solar cells. In 2012, he reported a lead iodide perovskite structure that can produce a power conversion efficiency above 10%. With this new structure, it is possible to dispense with the titanium dioxide. He later reported efficiencies up to 15% in a simple layer-by-layer structure deposited by simple evaporation and solution processing techniques.
Snaith received his MSc degree in 2001 from the University of Bristol and his PhD degree from Cambridge in 2004. He was awarded the Patterson Medal of the Institute of Physics in 2012, and named as one of “Nature’s 10” people who mattered in 2013. In 2010, he founded Oxford Photovoltaics Ltd., which is commercializing perovskite solar cells for building integrated and utility scale photovoltaic applications.
