A groundbreaking international partnership with the University of Florida and the non-profit organization of Sustainable Energy Initiative Pty Ltd of Australia at the center is charting the future of sustainable energy and clean technologies that aim to protect the environment.
The U.S.-Australia Sustainable Energy Initiative (UASEI), including the UF’s Center for Defect Engineering of Energy Materials (CDEEM), is harnessing the science of surface defect engineering (SDE) to revolutionize solar cells for generation of clean hydrogen fuel, and clean water technologies. Surface defect engineering is a materials science strategy that creates, controls and manipulates atomic-level defects on a material’s surface to enhance its electronic and chemical properties, leading to improvement of the performance of energy conversion devices, such as solar cells and fuel cells.
“This is not just about clean fuel or clean water,” said S.A. Sherif, Ph.D., professor in UF’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. “It’s about building a sustainable future, where transportation is powered by hydrogen, our air is safe to breathe, and our water is clean to drink.”
Sherif leads UASEI with David Black, Ph.D., former secretary general of the International Council of Science and a founder of the United Nations’s Future Earth program. UASEI brings together top energy experts from across the United States and Australia. This project’s goal is to accelerate the development of materials and devices that can directly address some of the world’s most urgent challenges, such as air pollution, global warming and water scarcity.
“The US-Australia partnership, forming the critical mass of expertise and infrastructure in energy materials, shapes the leading path towards resolving technical problems required for commercialization of sustainable transportation based on hydrogen energy that can reduce respiratory health hazards associated with air pollution,” said J. Nowotny, emeritus professor in Western Sydney University and a founding member of the CDEEM.
Why Now?
The urgency is clear. Air pollution is linked to respiratory illnesses like lung cancer and has fueled health crises worldwide, while climate variations driving devastating wildfires, water shortages and extreme weather. At the same time, energy demand is rising, and the need for sustainable transportation solutions has never been greater.
“Hydrogen-based energy systems can provide a clean alternative to fossil fuels,” said Sherif. “With surface defect engineering, we can dramatically boost the performance of solar cells and fuel cells, making a hydrogen economy not just possible, but scalable.”
At the heart of this initiative is the discovery of a segregation-induced low-dimensional, quasi-isolated surface structure (QISS), which is self-assembled in operational conditions on top of the initial surface. This structure has critical impact on the performance of energy materials, such as electrodes, photoelectrodes and catalysts. Though stable only under specific conditions, this structure can be formed in solar cells at room temperature, radically impacting how energy is transferred and converted. Studies of model systems suggest that surface defect engineering can increase energy conversion efficiency by a factor of up to three, a leap that could redefine clean energy systems.
With an eye on real-world solutions, UASEI has already developed promising prototype technologies:
- Solar cells for air purification that detoxify HVAC systems, reducing the spread of pathogens like COVID-19 and influenza in homes, schools, hospitals, shopping malls, workplaces and aircraft.
- Photoelectrochemical cells that generate clean hydrogen fuel from water in a single step.
- Water purification systems that can convert wastewater into safe drinking water.
- Oxide semiconductor processing technologies for next-generation solar and fuel cells.
The UASEI has published its foundational work in leading scientific journals, including Chemical Reviews of the American Chemical Society and the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Energy Advances. Now, the partnership is calling on industry and philanthropic organizations to help take these technologies from prototype to production.