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Austin Kuba

Austin Kuba

@austinkuba.bsky.social

120 followers 190 following 49 posts

Just trying to make the world a little better than I found it. Scientist at EPFL

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Vincent M. Le Corre @vmlc.bsky.social · 21d

🚨 Only 15 days left! 🚨

A quick reminder that the deadline to apply for our PhD position is approaching fast. The 1st of November is the last day to apply!

🔁 Please share this post widely in your networks — it really helps us reach great candidates!

Vincent M. Le Corre @vmlc.bsky.social · Sep 30

🔬 PhD opening @ SDU CAPE:

Join the R2-D2 project to build a self-driving lab for perovskite solar cells!
Work with robotics, machine learning & high-throughput experiments.

📍Sønderborg 🇩🇰
📅Start: Jan 2026
🔗 fa-eosd-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

PhD Position in Robotic Research platform and automated Device Doctor for Perovskite Solar Cells

The Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics and Thin-Film Energy Devices (SDU CAPE), part of the Mads Clausen Institute, University of Southern Denmark (SDU), invites applications for one or more 3-year PhD...

fa-eosd-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com

Austin Kuba @austinkuba.bsky.social · 24d

Unfortunately, the operational stability was reduced, which we provide preliminary investigations of, and discuss potential avenues for improvement. It’s critical to bring light to these issues!

Austin Kuba @austinkuba.bsky.social · 24d

More interestingly, the surface passivations homogenized the surface, This enabled 60cm2 spin coated perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells with certified PCE of 28.9%! Likely there are better options for scalability, but I never believed this level would be possible with spin-coated absorbers.

Austin Kuba @austinkuba.bsky.social · 24d

We find PCl has a surface dipole that helps align the bands of the C60 and perovskite and induces a field effect passivation. Combining both passivations lead to certified Vocs >2V and the stack actually improves the PLQY, making this a passivating contact.

Austin Kuba @austinkuba.bsky.social · 24d

In this system, we find that pfbpa can chemically passivate surface defects, increasing the plqy of bare films. There may also be losses that come from new states arising from the interface of two materials, and other losses coming from poor band alignment of the perovskite and fullerene absorbers.

Austin Kuba @austinkuba.bsky.social · 24d

There is more than one kind of interfacial loss. One is surface defects that come from, for example, surface defects coming from unsatisfied bonds at the surface.

Austin Kuba @austinkuba.bsky.social · 24d

The core of the paper is the investigation of perfluorobenzenylphosphonic acid (pfbpa) and piperazinium chloride (PCl) as surface passivation molecules in perovskite solar cells.

Austin Kuba @austinkuba.bsky.social · 24d

Everyone says spin-coating is not a scalable technique for perovskite solar cells as we push for large scale manufacturing. I tend to agree. However, Kerem’s new paper pushes the limits of this assumption. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

60 cm2 perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells with an efficiency of 28.9% by homogeneous passivation - Nature Communications

The performance of inverted perovskite solar cells has been limited by non-radiative recombination at the perovskite surfaces. Here, authors employ phosphonic acids and piperazinium chloride for homogeneous passivation, achieving certified efficiency of 28.9% for 60 cm2 perovskite-silicon tandems.

Reposted by Austin Kuba

Christian Wolff @pero-pal.bsky.social · 24d

Kerem pushed the limit of perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells once more!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

wafer-scale homogeneous passivation enabled 60cm2 tandem devices with 29% efficiency! #tandem #solar #pv #perovskite

Power conversion efficiency of tandem devices fabricated in the presented study versus device area. The 1cm2 device has over 31%, the 4cm2 device over 30% and the 60 cm2 device 28.9%. On top are photographs of the mentioned devices.

Reposted by Austin Kuba

Celine 🪼 @celine-elkhoury.bsky.social · Sep 26

A full circle moment: presenting the results of one of the research projects I came to Switzerland to join 3 years ago.

Our poster was featured at the ‘congress on trends in medical mycology’ and the ‘annual meeting of the swiss society of infectious diseases’, where I also gave a presentation.

Austin Kuba @austinkuba.bsky.social · Sep 26

That’s my girl!!! Always so proud of you ♥️

Austin Kuba @austinkuba.bsky.social · Sep 24

Really cool work! Congratulations 🎉

Reposted by Austin Kuba

Daryl Yee @dryeeseeks.bsky.social · Sep 24

Andddd it's now out in Advanced Materials!
doi.org/10.1002/adma...

Here, we show a new method of transforming hydrogels into ceramics and metals with low conversion shrinkages and high material densities. (1/7)

#chemsky #matsky

Reposted by Austin Kuba

Tim Mitchell @tmitch.net · Sep 18

Every mathematical instinct I have would tell me not to push THAT button.

A set of elevator buttons, one of which is labeled "1/0".

Austin Kuba @austinkuba.bsky.social · Sep 10

Looking forward to reading it when it’s out 😉

Austin Kuba @austinkuba.bsky.social · Sep 10

Congratulations for making it through the marathon review process! Great work!

Austin Kuba @austinkuba.bsky.social · Sep 5

Perovsky is such a good tag, will be using this from now on!

Reposted by Austin Kuba

Stefan Glunz @stefanglunz.bsky.social · Sep 5

Scratching the surface is not enough!

This should be a guiding principle of good science - and politics 😉 .

But it also applies to #photovoltaics!

www.ise.fraunhofer.de/en/press-med...

© Universität Freiburg / Foto: Silvia Wolf

Reposted by Austin Kuba

Christian Wolff @pero-pal.bsky.social · Aug 27

Incredibly proud of this and of your work, in all, Hilal Aybike Can. Any semiconductor meant for absorbing light can be tested this way in an accelerated fashion - rebuilt and adapt! pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

Accelerating optimization of halide perovskites: two blueprints for automation

The fine-tuning of halide perovskite materials for both performance and stability calls for innovative tools that streamline high-throughput experimentation. Here, we present two complementary systems...

Austin Kuba @austinkuba.bsky.social · Aug 6

I accomplished something today that I’ve been working towards for 9 years 🤩🤩🤩 such a surreal feeling

Reposted by Austin Kuba

Sascha Feldmann @feldmannlab.bsky.social · Jul 22

Join our faculty and be my colleague at an amazing school! We are #hiring at EPFL! www.epfl.ch/about/workin...

Tenure Track Assistant Professor in Experimental Physical or Analytical Chemistry

EPFL is a leading university with strong emphasis on basic sciences, engineering and life sciences. Research within its Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering (ISIC) includes synthetic, biolog...

Reposted by Austin Kuba

Daryl Yee @dryeeseeks.bsky.social · Jul 10

Out now in ACS Materials Letters pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

We developed a method to fabricate composites with volumetric additive manufacturing (VAM). The study was led by Yiming Ji, a grad student in my group, with support from @xolo3d.bsky.social

Here's a little 🧵(1/8)

Austin Kuba @austinkuba.bsky.social · Jul 5

Congratulations Daryl! I’m looking forward to seeing it out in the wild 😁

Reposted by Austin Kuba

Sascha Feldmann @feldmannlab.bsky.social · Jun 26

Excited to share in @nature.com today: Broadband transient full-Stokes luminescence spectroscopy - detecting the most subtle changes in light polarization over time with unprecedented sensitivity. Grateful for the team that made this possible!😊 www.nature.com/articles/s41... #chirality #light

Broadband transient full-Stokes luminescence spectroscopy - Nature

A high-sensitivity, broadband, transient, full-Stokes spectroscopy setup is demonstrated, which can detect quickly varying small signals from chiral emitters.

Reposted by Austin Kuba

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · Jun 18

Say goodbye to 1.5°C. But remember, the next target is 1.51°C and not 2°C. We need to keep fighting.

Every tonne of CO₂ emitted makes the job of future CO₂ removal harder, and every 0.01°C of temperature increase makes the world more chaotic and dangerous.

Earth set to exhaust ‘carbon budget’ within 3 years as Paris hopes fade

Goal of limiting warming to 1.5C looks increasingly out of reach, study finds