Materials for energy and sustainability drive 2011 Materials Research Society Spring Meeting
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he 2011 Materials Research Society Spring Meeting, held in San Francisco on April 25–29, hosted over 5000 attendees for a program of 50 technical symposia, along with a plenary address and award lectures, an exhibit of over 120 companies and a technology innovation forum, a special forum by Acta Materialia, a Women in Materials Science & Engineering Breakfast, special programs in advocacy and materials science education and outreach, government funding sessions, professional development seminars, and a career center. For four nights, the Meeting also presented the MRS Late Show: a four-part television series, MAKING STUFF—Stronger, Smaller, Cleaner, and Smarter, produced by NOVA in cooperation with MRS. Meeting Chairs Ping Chen (Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, China), Chang Beom-Eom (University of Wisconsin— Madison, USA), Samuel S. Mao (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory,
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MRS BULLETIN
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VOLUME 36 • AUGUST 2011
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USA), and Ryan O'Hayre (Colorado School of Mines, USA) broadly divided the technical program into the areas of materials for energy and sustainability, electronic and photonic materials, nanomaterials and nanotechnology, and organic and biomaterials as well as other general materials science areas.
Energy Focus This year, some emphasis was given to the role of materials in energy and sustainability, beginning with the plenary address given by Yet-Ming Chiang of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-founder of A123 Systems who spoke on battery-powered energy storage for transportation and grid scale applications (see section, “Special talks and events”). The cluster of symposia on energy and sustainability focused on photovoltaics, energy conversion and storage, solid-state ionics and complex oxides, thermoelectrics, and electrochromics.
www.mrs.org/bulletin
Solar cells on the rise International attention on alternative energy resources has resulted in a range of materials paradigms targeted at improving solar energy conversion. This motivation for symposium B on third-generation and emerging solar cell technologies captured the attention of those engaged in fundamental physics research as well as groups focusing on technological implementation. One topic that generated a great deal of interest was the role of quantum confinement in designing new ways to improve photovoltaic (PV) efficiency. The physics and technological efficacy of multiple-exciton generation (carrier multiplication) and quantum cutting were scrutinized and debated, with new results presented for PbS, PbSe quantum dots, and for silicon nanocrystals embedded in SiO2. The important role of surface treatments on multiple-exciton generation and on exciton transport was also taken up in a number of talks and posters. In addition, new paradigms with enhanced charge collection efficiencies were elucidated for organic systems, quantum dot sensitized bulk materials, and ultrathin nanowires. A take-away message of the symposium was that quantum confinement can be exploited in a number of novel ways to tip the scal
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