Ali Javey (Advisor)

Solar hydrogen production by photoelectrochemical water splitting holds great promise for efficient solar energy harvesting and storage. To achieve spontaneous water splitting, developing efficient photoelectrodes with both high photovoltage and high photocurrent is highly desirable. However, current studied photocathodes such as p-Si, p-Cu2O and p-GaP have photovoltage lower than half of 1.23 V, the minimum voltage required for water splitting. To overcome these challenges, we are currently developing a photocathode using amorphous Si thin film with TiO2 encapsulation layer for...

Some BSAC members have, in our surveys and at IAB meetings, vocalized that we need to help bridge commercialization gaps and increase the speed of commercialization. Traditional University research commercialization paths through passive licensing to start-ups, are often highly successful and will remain the dominant path. But such paths do not leverage the sophisticated manufacturing, marketing, and sales channels of our larger Industrial members who could rapidly exploit certain research discoveries. While any such commercialization facilitation programs cannot compromise the...

In recent years, mechanically deformable devices and sensors have been widely explored for various applications such as paper-thin displays and electronic skin for prosthetics and robotics. Liquids are extremely deformable and have shown promise for these applications, with previous works demonstrating pressure sensors with the ability to be stretched by up to 250% before failure.However, current technology is limited to a single liquid material as liquids tend to intermix when placed together, limiting the range of sensors that can be achieved. Here, in this work, we show a new...

Wearable sensor is a growing area in which real-time monitoring of an individual’s health status can be realized. Recently, skin-worn sensors capable of screening biomarkers in human body fluids have been developed. Since human sweat contains physiologically insightful information, it is a wonderful candidate for non-invasive health monitoring. In particular, sweat rate information is highly desired as it can provide a more complete picture for sweat analysis. Hence, the objective of this work is to develop a wearable sensor capable of monitoring sweat rate.

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