{"id":192,"date":"2015-06-18T12:27:40","date_gmt":"2015-06-18T16:27:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-ret\/?page_id=192"},"modified":"2021-09-28T13:35:15","modified_gmt":"2021-09-28T17:35:15","slug":"xin-zhang","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-ret\/research-projects\/projects-2025\/2015-summer-projects\/xin-zhang\/","title":{"rendered":"Xin Zhang"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Mesoporous Titanium Oxide Coating on Diatom Frustules towards Dye-synthesized Solar Cell Applications<\/h3>\n<figure id=\"attachment193\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment193\" style=\"width: 198px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/photonics-ret\/files\/2015\/06\/zhangx-2010.jpg\" alt=\"Xin Zhang\" width=\"188\" height=\"264\" class=\"wp-image-193\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment193\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Prof. Xin Zhang Mechanical Engineering<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>PROJECT DESCRIPTION<\/strong><br \/>\nDiatoms are incredibly diverse, photosynthetic microalgae that are abundant in aquatic environments. The intricate morphology of the micro- and nanostructured silica exoskeletons (frustules) encasing the single-celled diatoms offer a tremendous opportunity for developing novel, biologically-enabled manufacturing technologies.<\/p>\n<p>Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) are low-cost and lightweight, which stems from the independency for highly purified materials and the capacity to print DSCs using widely abundant, cheap, and non-toxic materials. Composed of several different materials, DSCs include a sensitizing dye, which is anchored to a wide-bandgap semiconductor such as ZnO, SnO2, or TiO2.<\/p>\n<p>This project ultimately seeks to leverage the unique light-trapping properties of the diatom to fabricate precisely engineered nanostructures in an effort to optimize DSC performance. Specifically for REU\/RET program, a simple method for coating mesoporous TiO2 layer on diatom frustules will be developed.<\/p>\n<p><strong>LEARNING GOALS<\/strong><br \/>\nTo fully understand the synthesis\/fabrication process, participants are expected to learn:<br \/>\n<strong><span>\u2022 <\/span><\/strong>Basic wet bench chemistry processing techniques<br \/>\n<strong><span>\u2022 <\/span><\/strong>Certain cleanroom fabrication techniques<br \/>\n<strong><span>\u2022 <\/span><\/strong>Various micro- and nano-scale characterization techniques.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Learn more about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/profile\/xin-zhang-ph-d\/\">Professor Zhang&#8217;s<\/a> work at her <a href=\"http:\/\/people.bu.edu\/xinz\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">lab website<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mesoporous Titanium Oxide Coating on Diatom Frustules towards Dye-synthesized Solar Cell Applications PROJECT DESCRIPTION Diatoms are incredibly diverse, photosynthetic microalgae that are abundant in aquatic environments. The intricate morphology of the micro- and nanostructured silica exoskeletons (frustules) encasing the single-celled diatoms offer a tremendous opportunity for developing novel, biologically-enabled manufacturing technologies. Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10577,"featured_media":0,"parent":117,"menu_order":12,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-ret\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/192"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-ret\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-ret\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-ret\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10577"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-ret\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-ret\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1797,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-ret\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/192\/revisions\/1797"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-ret\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-ret\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}