Amélie Lemay ’24

Major

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Project Title

Energy Efficient Photocatalysis

Presentation Link

View Amélie's Presentation

Certificate(s): Sustainable Energy

In photoredox catalysis, visible light is used to power chemical reactions that were traditionally powered by more energy-intensive methods, like shining ultraviolet light or heating to high temperatures. The RandLab and their collaborators have been working on a novel photoreactor design that relies on near-field energy transfer. This design has the potential to further improve the energy efficiency of processes powered by photoredox catalysis. My role was to aid in optimizing the component of this photoreactor that produces the light-emitting excitons: the organic light-emitting diode (OLED). Our aim was to make the brightest OLED possible. We used a variety of organic semiconducting materials and optimized the thicknesses of different layers. After each optimization, we measured the device’s current, efficiency, and stability. I learned to operate the spin coater, thermal evaporator, and characterization equipment used in the fabrication and performance evaluation of OLEDs. Our final structure was 60% brighter and 40% more efficient than the initial one, which represents a significant improvement to the near-field photoreactor.



Internship Year

2022

Project Category

Innovation and a New Energy Future

Organization(s)

RandLab, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Princeton University - Princeton, New Jersey

Mentor(s)

Barry Rand, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment; Jesse Wisch, Ph.D. candidate, Electrical and Computer Engineering