This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
The Division of Chemistry supports Eric Spitler of Cornell University as an American Competitiveness in Chemistry Fellow. Dr. Spitler will investigate the potential for covalent organic frameworks (COFs) to efficiently generate and separate electron-hole pairs in photovoltaic devices. Dr. Spitler will synthesize the COFs with aromatic pi electron donors and acceptors. Dr. Spitler will work in collaboration with scientists at Argonne National Laboratory to do cutting-edge time-resolved spectroscopic experiments to characterize the charge-separation and transport properties in these new materials. In his plan for broadening participation, Dr. Spitler will work with middle school students and teachers at a KIPP school in the South Bronx, New York City, as well as members of the Cornell Center for Materials Research. Materials developed through this partnership will draw upon content expertise of Dr. Spitler and his research colleagues but will also be designed to align with New York State standards for science curricula.
Research like that of Dr. Spitler is aimed at developing cheaper photovoltaic materials with improved properties. The efforts at broadening participation being pursued by Dr. Spitler are aimed at increasing the participation of young people from underrepresented groups in the sciences.
