Congratulations to two new PhD graduates

We congratulate Dr Shanti Maria Liga and Dr Yongjie Wang who recently defended their theses in ICFO’s auditorium.

Dr Liga obtained her MSc in Chemistry from the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. She joined the Functional Optoelectronic Nanomaterials research group at ICFO led by ICREA Prof Dr Gerasimos Konstantatos as a PhD student. Dr Liga’s thesis entitled ‘Environmentally-friendly perovskite nanocrystals based on titanium and tin’ was supervised by ICREA Prof Dr Gerasimos Konstantatos.

Dr Wang obtained his MSc in Physics from the Soochow University in China. He joined the Functional Optoelectronic Nanomaterials research group at ICFO led by ICREA Prof Dr Gerasimos Konstantatos as a PhD student. Dr Wang’s thesis entitled ‘Eco-Friendly Solar Cells with Cation-Engineered AgBIS2 Nanocrystals’ was supervised by ICREA Prof Dr Gerasimos Konstantatos.

Both PhDs were on the topic of environmentally friendly photovoltaic devices. Dr Liga’s thesis focused on the development of new solution syntheses for the preparation of novel lead-free vacancy-ordered double perovskite nanocrystals based on titanium and tin in the oxidation state +4, which are nontoxic and abundant elements. Dr Wang’s thesis focused on pinpointing the detrimental effects of cation inhomogeneity in ternary silver bismuth sulfide nanocrystals and further homogenize the cation-disorder by a facile post-annealing process, leading to absorption coefficients higher than any other commonly used solar materials over a wide range of 400 – 1000 nm. The work resulted in ultrathin solar cells with a record efficiency of up to 9.17% (independently certified as 8.85% by Newport). The ultrathin solar cells also showed excellent stability under ambient conditions.