About

Nelson Y. Dzade is an Assistant Professor and the Chair of the Undergraduate Energy Engineering Program in the John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering at Penn State. He is an interdisciplinary research scientist and educator with expertise in materials informatics, electronic structure theory, computational materials science, sustainable energy, and chemical processes. Dzade holds a Ph.D. in Computational Materials Science from University College London (2014), along with postgraduate diplomas and degrees in materials science and mathematics from institutions in India, Nigeria, and Ghana. He is the Co-Director of AESEDA – The Penn State Alliance for Education, Science, Engineering, and Design with Africa, and holds affiliate positions with several research centers at Penn State, including the EMS Energy Institute, Materials Research Institute, Institutes of Energy and the Environment, and the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences. His research focuses on developing and applying advanced theoretical methods to understand structure-property-performance relationships in solid-state materials, often in collaboration with experimental work. His work emphasizes the development of ab initio methods and the use of first-principles calculations to design and engineer functional materials for renewable energy technologies such as photovoltaics, heterogeneous catalysis, batteries, and mineral processing. Dzade leads the Materials and Minerals Theory Group, which specializes in unraveling complex interfacial phenomena, charge carrier dynamics, and environmentally relevant reactions at mineral surfaces and interfaces. He is actively involved in collaborative research and training initiatives across African universities, advocating for STEM development and renewable energy policies, and mentoring young scientists, especially underrepresented minorities.

Research topics

• Materials science
• Chemical engineering
• Metallurgy
• Chemistry
• Nanotechnology
• Inorganic chemistry
• Optoelectronics
• Composite material
• Computational chemistry
• Thermodynamics
• Physical chemistry
• Optics

Selected publications

• High Stability and Long Cycle Life of Rechargeable Sodium-Ion Battery Using Manganese Oxide Cathode: A Combined Density Functional Theory (DFT) and Experimental Study

  ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces · 2021 · 112 citations

  • Materials science
  • Chemical engineering
  • Inorganic chemistry

  are responsible for better cycling performance in conjunction with fast and sustained charge-discharge behaviors.

  DOI

• Implementing Dopant-Free Hole-Transporting Layers and Metal-Incorporated CsPbI₂Br for Stable All-Inorganic Perovskite Solar Cells

  ACS Energy Letters · 2021 · 103 citations

  • Materials science
  • Inorganic chemistry
  • Chemical engineering

  Br films and applied dopant-free copper(I) thiocyanate (CuSCN) and poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT)-based materials as low-cost hole transporting layers, leading to record-high power conversion efficiencies of 15.27% and 15.69%, respectively, and a retention of >95% of the initial efficiency over 1600 h at 85 °C thermal stress.

  DOI

• Structural and Optical Properties of ZnO Thin Films Prepared by Molecular Precursor and Sol–Gel Methods

  Crystals · 2020 · 131 citations

  • Materials science
  • Nanotechnology
  • Chemical engineering

  Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a versatile and inexpensive semiconductor with a wide direct band gap that has applicability in several scientific and technological fields. In this work, we report the synthesis of ZnO thin films via two simple and low-cost synthesis routes, i.e., the molecular precursor method (MPM) and the sol–gel method, which were deposited successfully on microscope glass substrates. The films were characterized for their structural and optical properties. X-ray diffraction (XRD) characterization showed that the ZnO films were highly c-axis (0 0 2) oriented, which is of interest for piezoelectric applications. The surface roughness derived from atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis indicates that films prepared via MPM were relatively rough with an average roughness (Ra) of 2.73 nm compared to those prepared via the sol–gel method (Ra = 1.55 nm). Thin films prepared via MPM were more transparent than those prepared via the sol–gel method. The optical band gap of ZnO thin films obtained via the sol–gel method was 3.25 eV, which falls within the range found by other authors. However, there was a broadening of the optical band gap (3.75 eV) in thin films derived from MPM.

  DOI

Frequent coauthors

• Nora H. de Leeuw

  Utrecht University

  123 shared

• Sachin R. Rondiya

  Indian Institute of Science Bangalore

  75 shared

• Evans Adei

  Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

  25 shared

• Richard Tia

  Kwame Nkrumah University

  25 shared

• Russell W. Cross

  Cardiff University

  23 shared

• Sandesh Jadkar

  Savitribai Phule Pune University

  23 shared

• Aleksandar Živković

  Utrecht University

  19 shared

• Jan P. Hofmann

  Stony Brook University

  17 shared

Education

• PhD Computational Materials Science , Chemistry

  University College London

  2014

• PgD. Materials Science , International Center for Materials Science

  Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research

  2010

• MSc. Materials Science , Materials Science

  African University of Science and Technology

  2009

• BSc. Applied Statistics, Applied Mathematics and Statistics

  University for Development Studies

  2007

Similar researchers at Pennsylvania State University

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• Qin Wangh-123
• Richard Alleyh-120
• William H. Bruneh-99
• Ayusman Senh-96