Yifan (Imperial)
Dr Yifan Dong is a postdoctoral researcher in the Durrant Group, an Imperial College research group that is interested in the development of new chemical approaches to solar energy conversion.
This blog series is going to share the stories of amazing academics, showcasing their brilliant work.
At ScholarTribe, we’re supporting our clients’ sustainability journeys by connecting them with brilliant climate academics for freelance projects.
Tell me about your journey into academia
I first came to the UK from China in 2010 for my A-levels. It was around then that I started to have an interest in chemistry. So, I continued to study chemistry at Imperial for undergrad and I really enjoyed it. In the last year of my undergrad, after a tricky project, I discovered that hardcore synthetic chemistry wasn’t for me. Unperturbed, I continued my studies with a master’s degree that had a focus in solar energy conversion materials. There’s an exciting new solar energy conversion material called perovskite, and with this we made some solar cell devices. Like for the solar panels you’ll have on your roof, but with completely state of the art materials.
I love the physics side of it as well. You know, making something happen, and understanding what’s really happening. That’s what makes me want to stay in academia.
What drew you to work on solar cells?
Chemistry is all about materials and molecules. In solar cells, you use a specific type of material and make it convert sunlight into electricity. There are lots of fascinating things about these materials and what is really happening. It’s great, it’s showing remarkable efficiency nowadays. The current silicon solar panels have their own performance limitations, so what I’m trying to do is to use new materials that can overcome these problems.
What was your PhD studying?
When I started my PhD, I had a pretty specific field of interest. That was using an ultrafast laser to shoot molecules with really short time durations. We’re talking about femtoseconds, where a femtosecond to a second is the equivalent of a second compared to about 32 million years. With this, we can track the movement of electrons inside those materials. We can understand how they will contribute to the current generation of the solar cell devices. Ultrafast laser spectroscopy is a great tool to help us understand the limitation of the current technology.
There’s been great progress in this field. Since I started my PhD the efficiency of this particular technology has nearly doubled. It’s a really exciting time to work in this area.
What are you working on now?
It was a natural progression from my PhD into my current role in the Durrant Group, a research group led by Professor James Durrant. I’m still working with the same people and the same supervisor. Some of the projects are even following on from my PhD. One main thing that’s different is that I have more responsibility and I’m more in a supervision role. I’m working with some master students and some new postdocs which I enjoy.
What are you most excited about for your work or the groups work in the next few years?
Based on what I’m working on, one branch that I’m excited about is in photovoltaics. Our group has recently received a big grant of a few million pounds to commercialise photovoltaics in an application targeted and integrated way. You can stay in the labs, understand all the fundamentals, but sometimes you don’t know what people in industry need. This project really kind of brings the academic researchers and the industry together to talk about the real problem. We’re talking about lots of cool applications of solar panels, in spacecrafts, or for small indoor gadgets. They have great potential!
How important is having a connection between the academic and commercial worlds?
I think it’s crucial. People are focusing on different problems. In the commercial world, when they’re trying to innovate and make something happen, they often don’t realise that this is something that researchers are already working on. It’s the same with the researchers, they often don’t really understand what’s needed in the commercial world. If they knew, maybe researchers would modify their research direction. Researchers often value their impact on publications, but in reality, not all publications are widely read outside the academic community. Working with industry, you can make something with wider interest and that’s more impactful.
How can people stay in touch with developments in science?
Imperial has some great podcasts about scientific developments: https://open.spotify.com/show/2fBa8AdD0tJalp4zvLq8rh?si=D05LD4b_RmSzmevVDouR1A
A lot more people are using Twitter to share information about science. I would recommend just getting on the platform and following science related handles and hashtags.
