Chapter 1 Learning from Nature to Improve Solar Energy
Conversion DevicesDi Sheng Lee, Yoke Keng Ngeow, and Swee Ching Tan
Chapter 2 Developments in Electrodes and Electrolytes of Dye-Sensitized
Solar Cells
Ajay K. Kushwaha, Nagaraju Mokurala, Krishnaiah Mokurala,
and Siddhartha Suman
Chapter 3 Organic Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells
Daize Mo, Tianyu Bai, Leilei Tian, and Feng He
Chapter 4 Reaction Centers as Nanoscale Photovoltaic Devices
Michael R. Jones
Chapter 5 Bio-photoelectrochemical Cells: Protein Immobilization
Routes and Electron Transfer ModesSai Kishore Ravi, Vishnu Saran Udayagiri, Anuraj Singh
Rawat, and Swee Ching Tan
Chapter 6 Electronics, Photonics, and Device Physics in Protein
BiophotovoltaicsSai Kishore Ravi and Swee Ching Tan
Chapter 7 Challenges and Opportunities of Photosynthetic
Protein-Based Solar CellDi Sheng Lee, Yoke Keng Ngeow, and Swee Ching Tan
Biography
Swee Ching Tan received his bachelor’s degree in
Physics from the National University of Singapore
(NUS). He then worked for Hewlett Packard
Singapore and Ireland as a laser process and equipment
engineer to develop new technologies for silicon
micromachining. At Hewlett Packard, he made
two major contributions that helped the company to
achieve major cost-cutting goals and to increase the
throughput within his department. He was honored
with the Award for Outstanding Achievement for
these contributions to the company. He subsequently
gained PhD admission to the University of
Cambridge’s Electrical Engineering Department
with scholarships from Cambridge Commonwealth Trust and the Wingate
Foundation. His PhD work, under the supervision of Professor Sir Mark Welland,
involved using photosynthetic proteins as light-absorbing materials for solar cells.
After completing his PhD, Dr. Tan moved to the Department of Materials Science
and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to become a postdoctoral
associate working on nanoelectronics. He is currently an assistant professor in
the Department of Materials Science and Engineering with NUS Faculty of
Engineering.
Dr. Tan’s research interests span a wide range of areas in the fields of energy
and environmental sciences. The area of biohybrid photovoltaics is a core expertise
of his research lab with a number of new device architectures developed in recent
years. Dr. Tan’s research group has achieved breakthrough energy-harvesting performances
using natural and engineered photoproteins. His research group is also
working on developing organic ionic conductors and work-function engineering for
applications in energy harvesting and photosensing electronic devices. Bridging the
spheres of energy and environment sciences, the research group is also focusing
on developing low-energy and low-cost air filtration and thermal comfort technologies.
By engineering super-hygroscopic materials and hierarchically structured solar
absorbers, the research team led by Dr. Tan aims to develop clean water technologies
that could generate potable water not only from seawater but also out of humid air.
