About

Nutifafa Y. Doumon is an assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Penn State, where he is also the Virginia S. and Philip L. Walker Jr. Faculty Fellow of Materials Science and Engineering and the Fuels Science Program Unit. He is an interdisciplinary scientist with a background in physics, nanoscience, and leadership. Doumon’s main research interest focuses on materials for next-generation photovoltaic and optoelectronic technologies, including organic/polymer, halide perovskite, and quantum dot semiconductors for indoor and outdoor photovoltaic and optoelectronic device fabrication, characterization, stability, and reliability testing. He joined Penn State in 2023 after working as a researcher at INRS-EMT in Canada and at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Colorado, where he contributed to projects related to solar technologies and perovskite PV acceleration. With over a decade of experience, Doumon is an advocate for better education, women in STEM, global climate change, and sustainable energy transition and resources. His research spans materials and sustainable energy devices, focusing on the stability and reliability of optoelectronic and photovoltaic devices, and the impacts of energy resources and technology deployment. He is actively involved in the Penn State Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Materials Science and Engineering, fostering cross-disciplinary collaboration and research among graduate students.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Process engineering
• Engineering
• Environmental science
• Materials science
• Optoelectronics
• Chemical engineering
• Engineering physics
• Environmental engineering
• Electrical engineering
• Nanotechnology

Selected publications

• Stability of Perovskite Indoor Photovoltaics: A Focused Review and a Call for Standardized Stability Reporting

  Advanced Energy Materials · 2026-02-03 · 3 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  ABSTRACT Metal halide perovskite indoor photovoltaics (IPVs) are the top contenders in terms of efficiency among emerging IPV technologies. The state‐of‐the‐art perovskite IPVs have already achieved reported efficiencies above 44%, indicating their significant potential. However, only a small percentage of reports discuss stability measurements, with approximately 7% adopting the International Summit on Organic PV Stability (ISOS) protocol for stability evaluation. A standard for the stability assessment of emerging thin film IPVs still lags. This research area remains largely unexplored, yet it is essential to the commercialization of IPV technologies. This review focuses on perovskite‐based IPVs, with an emphasis on device stability. It provides discussions of the origins of degradation in perovskite materials and their corresponding IPV devices. This is followed by an overview of various structure–property–stability strategies, including compositional, interface, and device design engineering for perovskite materials to improve their performance. Finally, the review outlines some existing stability test protocols that could apply to perovskite IPVs, including addressing mitigation issues, such as encapsulation, draws the attention of researchers in the field, and calls for the development of standardized stability test protocols for perovskite IPVs and for understanding how these tests correlate with actual indoor lifespans to enable the commercialization of perovskite IPVs.

  PublisherDOI

• Correction: Semitransparent organic and perovskite photovoltaics for agrivoltaic applications

  Energy Advances · 2025-12-04

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Correction for ‘Semitransparent organic and perovskite photovoltaics for agrivoltaic applications’ by Souk Y. Kim et al. , Energy Adv. , 2025, 4 , 37–54, https://doi.org/10.1039/D4YA00492B.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• New solar energy harvesting materials for indoor photovoltaics

  2025-09-15

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Emerging organic and hybrid perovskite photovoltaics (PVs) are promising solar energy harvesting technologies for decentralized solar energy. Organic and perovskite semiconductors possess formidable optoelectronic properties, are easily solution-processed, adaptable to hot climates, and can be ultra-thin and semitransparent. They exhibit other advantages due to their flexibility, lightweight, and absorption tunability, making them suitable for unconventional applications, including the Internet of Things nodes, agrivoltaic, and indoor PV. Organic and perovskite PV exhibit record efficiencies of over 20% and 27%, respectively, at the cell level. Here, we will focus on recent developments and their indoor PV applications.

  PublisherDOI

• Substitutional doping of 2D transition metal dichalcogenides for device applications: Current status, challenges and prospects

  Materials Science and Engineering R Reports · 2025-02-05 · 26 citations

  articleOpen access

  Two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have emerged as a class of materials with exceptional electronic, optical, and mechanical properties, making them highly tunable for diverse applications in nanoelectronics, optoelectronics, and catalysis. This review focuses on substitutional doping of TMDs, a key strategy to tailor their properties and enhance device performance, with a focus on its applications over the past five years (2019–2024). We delve into both theoretical and experimental doping approaches, including established methods like chemical vapor transport (CVT) and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) alongside liquid phase exfoliation (LPE) and post-synthesis treatments. Advanced growth techniques are also explored. Challenges like dopant uniformity, concentration control, and stability are addressed. The influence of various dopants on the electronic band structure, carrier concentration, and defect engineering is analyzed in detail. We further explore recent advancements in utilizing doped TMDs for field-effect transistors (FETs), photodetectors, sensors, photovoltaics, optoelectronic devices, energy storage and conversion, and even quantum computers. By examining both the potential and limitations of substitutional doping, this review aims to propel future research and technological advancements in this exciting field.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Author response for "Ambient-Processed Semitransparent Perovskite Solar Cells from Eco-friendly Solvents"

  2025-09-26

  peer-reviewSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Chemical structure and processing solvent of cathode interlayer materials affect organic solar cells performance

  Journal of Materials Chemistry C · 2025-01-01 · 3 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Interlayer toxic solvent processing and instability remain a challenge in organic solar cells. We test F-PDIN-EH in three solvents against the well-established PDINO to understand the structure–property–performance relationships in device stability.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Author response for "A-site Cation Modification of Cs-Based Perovskite Thin Film for Green Light Emitting Diodes"

  2025-08-06

  peer-review
  PublisherDOI

• Synergistic effect of Cu:Zn-In-Se2 QDs/Fe3O4 hybrid mesoporous films optimization and magnetic fields for solar-driven wastewater purification

  Sustainable materials and technologies · 2025-10-31

  articleOpen access

  Photocatalysis has garnered substantial interest as a cost-effective, eco-friendly method for degrading pollutants from pharmaceutical industries and agricultural sectors. However, the low efficiency of available photocatalysts due to fast recombination and slow separation of photogenerated carriers, demands the design of new photocatalysts that can contribute to solving the current environmental remediation challenges. In this work, we have developed for the first time novel hybrid photocatalysts of colloidal eco-friendly quantum dots (QDs) Cu:Zn-In-Se 2 QDs decorated on one-dimensional (1D) Fe 3 O 4 nanorods mesoporous film on conducting glass substrate and tested the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) in the presence of external magnetic field (MF). By optimizing hybrid heterostructure photocatalyst and external MF, an excellent photocatalytic efficiency of 99.96 % photocatalytic removal of MB was achieved, which is 49 % higher than the control photocatalyst Fe 3 O 4 (67.01 %). The significant increase in photocatalytic efficiency attributed to the synergistic effect of broad light absorption of Cu:Zn-In-Se 2 QDs∕Fe 3 O 4 and efficient carrier dynamics assisted with Lorentz force in the presence of external MF. Lorentz force associated with external MF leads to the efficient separation and transport of the photogenerated carrier in hybrid Cu:Zn-In-Se 2 QDs∕Fe 3 O 4 photocatalyst confirmed by time-resolved spectroscopy. Additionally, this novel hybrid photocatalyst was employed as a thin film conducting glass, which demands less materials compared to photocatalysts used in powder form, and has an excellent reusable efficiency after four cycles, demonstrating superior stability and, thus, a promising photocatalyst for real-time wastewater remediation technology. • Developed Cu:Zn-In-Se₂ QDs/Fe₃O₄ nanorod mesoporous films hybrid photocatalyst. • Achieved 99.96 % MB removal under external magnetic field. • External magnetic field enhances charge separation/transport via Lorentz force. • Time-resolved spectroscopy confirms improved carrier dynamics in hybrid film. • Thin film design uses less material and offers high reusability.

  PublisherDOI

• New <i>p</i>-azaquinodimethane core based narrow-gap non-ring fused organic acceptor

  Materials Chemistry Frontiers · 2025-01-01 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  The design and synthesis of sAQM-1 , a para -azaquinodimethane-based non-ring fused, narrow gap organic π-conjugated molecule with an undemanding, metal-free synthetic route, is reported.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Bi ₂ O ₂ Se nanosheets for dual-mode electrochemical/fluorescence turn-off sensing of ferric ions

  Nanoscale · 2025-01-01 · 2 citations

  article

  Schematic of a dual electrochemical and fluorescence turn-off sensor based on exfoliated Bi 2 O 2 Se nanosheets, enabling highly sensitive, selective, and real-time detection of Fe 3+ ions.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Ivy M. Asuo

  Pennsylvania State University

  26 shared

• L. Jan Anton Koster

  University of Groningen

  16 shared

• Riad Nechache

  Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique

  12 shared

• Benjamin Agyei‐Tuffour

  12 shared

• Ibrahima Ka

  12 shared

• A. Pignolet

  Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique

  12 shared

• Davood Abbaszadeh

  11 shared

• Joseph J. Berry

  University of Colorado Boulder

  11 shared

Labs

• Nutifafa Y. Doumon LabPI

Education

• MSc (Topmaster) Nanoscience

  Rijksuniversiteit Groningen Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials

  2013

• MSc Physics, Applied and Theoretical Physics

  African University of Science and Technology

  2011

• Physics, Physics

  University of Ghana

  2009

Awards & honors

• Royal Society of Chemistry Journal of Materials Chemistry C…
• National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine U.S…
• People’s Choice Award Topmaster in Nanoscience Scholarship b…
• Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Scholarship at one of the Nelson Man…