Dr. Miriam Rafailovich
Miriam Rafailovich received her PhD from Stony Brook University in Applied Nuclear Physics. She then did her post doctoral work at Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Weizmann Institute. Miriam was associate professor of Physics and Astronomy at CUNY, Queens College and returned as Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Stony Brook University, where she is currently a distinguished professor and co-director of the program in Chemical and Molecular Engineering. Miriam is director of the Garcia NSF center for Polymers at Engineered Interfaces . Her research interests span a broad spectrum which includes, the applications of polymer nanocomposites to advanced materials engineering for energy applications, flame retardant compounds, biodegradable polymers, bioengineering materials, and nanotoxicology. Miriam is also known as a pioneer in the integration of research with education . She has graduated more than 60 PhD and Masters students and mentored several hundered undergraduate and high school students from across the United States and abroad. She is the co-author of more than 360 publications in peer reviewed journals and technical review articles, a Lady Davis Foundation Scholar and a fellow the American Physical Society
Engineering Nanocomposite Heterodyne Junction Photovoltaic Cells
Despite the abundance of solar energy, and their ease of manufacture, the relatively low efficiency of polymer photovoltaic cells hindered their development for mass production. In contrast to semi-conductor photovoltaic devices, exciton transport to the electrodes poses a major problem in the highly disordered environment of the polymeric matrices. Here we present several novel approaches using polymer self assembly, in combination with engineered nanoparticles that can modify the work function and increase to internal order, in an effort to enhance the conduction and the power efficiency of these devices