Biography

Lydia received her B. Appl.Sci. With Honors and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from NTU. She won the third prize of the Young Persons’ Lecture Competition in London in 2004 for her talk in strain relaxation of SiGe/Si heteroepitaxy.

After completing her PhD, she worked as a Senior Engineer at the Technology Development Department of Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing (now Global Foundries) in the area of advanced gate oxide technology. She was also a Visiting Scientist at Stanford University developing organic photovoltaic materials at the Department of Chemical Engineering. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the School of Materials Science and Engineering, NTU.

Current Research Interests

Lydia is interested in the investigation of structural and chemical modification of materials to improve electronic transport properties. She has been working on the band-gap engineering of strained Si/SiGe heterostructure for high-mobility electronic devices. Her current research activities include the synthesis and characterizations of semiconductor nanostructures, fabrication of photovoltaic devices and electronic characterizations of photovoltaic and nanoelectronic devices.

Project: Printable Semi Transparent Solar Cells

State-of-the art solar panels are opaque due to the use of low band-gap absorber materials or due to the metallic top electrode. Applications of solar panels in windows require some degree of transparency. The objective of this project is to deliver semitransparent solar cells obtained by printing methods which is scalable for building applications. The semi transparency will be achieved by 2 methods: 1) Using a solution-processed transparent conductor and 2) create a semi-transparent grid to pattern the absorber materials. The grid will be created using a chemical self assembly technique and the solar cells will be fabricated by printing of pre-prepared ink formulations. Possible absorbers for solar cells are the perovskite and Cu-chalcogenide materials.  Large scale patterns for aesthetic purpose can then be printed on top of the semi-transparent solar cell. Finally, the patterned semi-transparent solar cell can be integrated with electrochromic materials to produce self-powered smart windows for building applications.

Selected Publications

Hui Min Lim, Sudip K. Batabyal, Stevin S. Pramana, L. H. Wong, Shlomo Magdassi and S. G. Mhaisalkar, Chemical welding of binary nanoparticles: room temperature sintering of CuSe and In2S3 nanoparticles for solution-processed CuInSxSe1−x solar cells, Chem Comm (Advance Article 2013).

PD. Tran, M. Nguyen, L.H. Wong, et al, Copper molybdenum sulfide: a new efficient electrocatalyst for hydrogen production from water, Energy & Environmental Science Volume: 5 Issue: 10 Pages: 8912-8916.

Xi, Lifei; Bassi, Prince Saurabh; Chiam, Sing Yang; L.H. Wong, et al, Surface treatment of hematite photoanodes with zinc acetate for water oxidation, Nanoscale 2012, Volume: 4 Issue: 15 Pages: 4430-4433.

Xi. L., Tran, P.D., Chia, S.Y., Bassi, P.S., Mak, W.F., Mulmudi, H.K., Batabyal, S.K., Barber, J. and Loo, J.S.C. and Wong, L.H. (2012) Co3O4 decorated hematite nanorods as efficient photoanode for solar water oxidation J. Phys. Chem. C. 116, 13884-13889.

Xi. L, L.H. Wong et al, A novel strategy for surface treatment on hematite photoanode for efficient water oxidation, Chem. Science., 2012, Volume: 4 Issue: 1 Pages: 164-169.

M.Nguyen, P.D. Tran, SS. Pramana, Rui Lin Lee, Sudip K. Batabyal, Nripan Mathews, L.H. Wong and Michael Graetzel, In situ photo-assisted deposition of MoS2 electrocatalyst onto zinc cadmium sulphide nanoparticle surfaces to construct an efficient photocatalyst for hydrogen generation, Nanoscale (2013) Volume: 5 Issue: 4 Pages: 1479-1482.
Cai Y, J. Ho, S.K. Batabyal, Y. Sun, W. Liu, S.G. Mhaisalkar and L.H. Wong, Nanoparticle-induced grain growth of Carbon-free solution processed CuIn(S,Se)2 solar cell with 6% efficiency, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2013, 5 (5), pp 1533–1537.

J. Ho, S.K. Batabyal, L.H. Wong et al, Optical and Electrical Properties of Wurtzite Copper Indium Sulfide Nanoflakes, Materials Express 2012 Vol. 2, No. 4, p 344-350.

J. Sun, C. Sun, S.K. Batabyal, P.D. Tran, S.S. Pramana, L.H. Wong, S.G. Mhaisalkar, Morphology and stoichiometry control of hierarchical CuInSe2/SnO2 nanostructures by directed electrochemical assembly for solar energy harvesting, Electrochemistry Communications, 2012, 15(1), 18-21.

T.Z. Oo, N. Mathews, G.Xing, B.Wu, B. Xing, L.H. Wong, T. C. Sum, and S. G. Mhaisalkar, Ultrafine Gold Nanowire Networks as Plasmonic Antennae in Organic Photovoltaics, J. Phys Chem C, 2012, 116 (10), 6453-6458