Nitin Padture

About

Nitin Padture is the Otis E. Randall University Professor of Engineering at Brown University and serves as the Director of the Initiative for Sustainable Energy (ISE). His research interests include renewable energy and energy efficiency, with a focus on halide perovskite solar cells and modules. He is also engaged in the tailoring of high-temperature advanced structural ceramics, composites, and coatings for high-efficiency, fuel-flexible gas-turbine engines used in electricity generation and aircraft propulsion. Padture has received recognition for his contributions to engineering, including the Humboldt Research Award, and is ranked among the top two percent of scientists worldwide in his field.

Research topics

• Composite material
• Chemical engineering
• Materials science
• Physical chemistry
• Crystallography
• Chemistry
• Mineralogy
• Metallurgy
• Inorganic chemistry
• Geology

Selected publications

• Interfacial toughening with self-assembled monolayers enhances perovskite solar cell reliability

  Science · 2021-05-06 · 596 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  Iodine-terminated self-assembled monolayer (I-SAM) was used in perovskite solar cells (PSCs) to achieve a 50% increase of adhesion toughness at the interface between the electron transport layer (ETL) and the halide perovskite thin film to enhance mechanical reliability. Treatment with I-SAM also increased the power conversion efficiency from 20.2% to 21.4%, reduced hysteresis, and improved operational stability with a projected T80 (time to 80% initial efficiency retained) increasing from ~700…

  PublisherDOI

• Co-deposition of hole-selective contact and absorber for improving the processability of perovskite solar cells

  Nature Energy · 2023-03-16 · 333 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Interpenetrating interfaces for efficient perovskite solar cells with high operational stability and mechanical robustness

  Nature Communications · 2021-02-12 · 293 citations

  articleOpen access

  The perovskite solar cell has emerged rapidly in the field of photovoltaics as it combines the merits of low cost, high efficiency, and excellent mechanical flexibility for versatile applications. However, there are significant concerns regarding its operational stability and mechanical robustness. Most of the previously reported approaches to address these concerns entail separate engineering of perovskite and charge-transporting layers. Herein we present a holistic design of perovskite and cha…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Challenges and opportunities for the mechanical reliability of metal halide perovskites and photovoltaics

  Nature Energy · 2023-11-30 · 94 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Connecting Interfacial Mechanical Adhesion, Efficiency, and Operational Stability in High Performance Inverted Perovskite Solar Cells

  ACS Energy Letters · 2024-04-02 · 90 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Carbazole-based self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) at the interface between the metal-halide perovskite (MHP) and the transparent conducting oxide (TCO) serve the function of hole-transport layers in p-i-n “inverted” perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Here we show that the use of an iodine-terminated carbazole-based SAM increases the interfacial mechanical adhesion dramatically (2.6-fold) and that this is responsible for substantial improvements in the interfacial morphology, photocarrier transport, a…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Emergent Opto-Mechanical and Electro-Mechanical Coupled Behavior of Halide Perovskites

  NSF · $480k · 2021–2025

• Sensors: Engineered Nanowires and Arrays as Advanced Chemical Nanosensors

  NSF · $375k · 2005–2008

• RII Track-2 FEC: Low-Cost, Efficient Next-Generation Solar Cells for the Coming Clean Energy Revolution

  NSF · $4.0M · 2015–2020

Frequent coauthors

• Yuanyuan Zhou

  Southwest Jiaotong University

  356 shared

• Min Chen

  Arizona State University

  146 shared

• A. L. Vasiliev

  122 shared

• Zhenghong Dai

  Providence College

  112 shared

• Shuping Pang

  Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology

  109 shared

• Hector F. Garcés

  Providence College

  102 shared

• Yingxia Zong

  Qingdao University of Science and Technology

  93 shared

• J. Bartolomé

  Instituto de Nanociencia y Materiales de Aragón

  81 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Materials Science and Engineering

  Lehigh University

  1991

Awards & honors

• Humboldt Research Award (2025)

Similar researchers at Brown University

• Huajian Gaoh-156
• John Donoghueh-127
• Yue Qih-77