This is a story of miles and nanometers. Celline Awino Omondi and Miller Shatsala traveled from Kakamega, Kenya, to Berkeley, USA, through a grant from Lightsources for Africa, the Americas, Asia, Middle East, and Pacific (LAAAMP), a journey of over 9,400 miles. Their research interests, however, are best described with nanometers—very thin perovskite films to be used for solar energy.
At their home institution, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, Omondi is a faculty member and Shatsala is a PhD student in the department of physics. Omondi’s interest in new materials began in graduate school. “I did a master’s in materials nanotechnology, and it was so interesting, I wanted to continue in materials science,” she said. Though her doctoral studies were in Germany, her research inspiration was closer to home. “In Africa, we have abundant solar radiation. So, we are looking for a way to tap into that solar radiation so that we can use it for our daily life.”
Omondi envisions many applications for photovoltaics. With the new materials under development, solar energy could be used in the future for everything from household electricity to vaccine storage in hospitals and irrigation on farms. New materials to harness solar energy would be life changing. “Most parts of Africa aren’t on the grid, and if they have electricity, it’s very expensive,” Omondi explained.
Similarly, Shatsala’s master’s thesis research focused on silicon solar cells. “Then I discovered that there are new materials coming up in solar energy whose efficiency was almost passing silicon, so that’s why I shifted to perovskites,” he said.
To characterize the perovskites they’re studying, the two researchers came to the Advanced Light Source through a LAAAMP Faculty-Student (FAST) Teams grant. The program provides financial support for PhD students and their faculty advisors from Africa, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Pacific to spend two months in residence at a collaborative partner light source. With this training opportunity, scientists like Omondi and Shatsala will be able to take their newfound skills and knowledge back to a region that is still in the planning phases for its own synchrotron facility. One day in the future, the two researchers could be part of operating and using this facility—the African Light Source. “We were privileged to be picked to be among the few people in Africa to come to the ALS,” said Shatsala.
Read more on the ALS website
Image: The researchers at Beamline 7.3.3. Left to right: Yunfei Wang, Aidan Coffey, Miller Shatsala, Celline Omondi, Chenhui Zhu