Location
Chemical Engineering Building, Room 218
PO Box 400741
Charlottesville, VA 22904
Google Scholar Choi Laboratory for Optoelectronic Nanomaterials

About

Joshua J. Choi received B.E. in Chemical Engineering from Cooper Union and Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Cornell University. He then performed postdoctoral research at the Department of Chemistry, Columbia University. He joined the faculty of the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Virginia in August, 2014. He is a recipient of a NASA Early Career Faculty Award (2015).

At the nanoscale, quantum mechanical effects and various other mechanisms cause the properties of semiconductors to strongly depend on the size, shape and surface of the material. For example, when the size of a semiconductor crystal becomes smaller than the size of electronic wave function (typically few to tens of nanometers in semiconductors), manipulating the spatial extension of the carrier wave function becomes possible simply by changing the size of the crystal. This 'wave function engineering' gives rise to intriguing cases where, depending on the size of the crystal, semiconductors with the identical composition can have drastically different band gaps, carrier-carrier Coulomb interaction strengths and excited state dynamics. In addition to the size-tunability, properties of semiconductor nanomaterials can be manipulated by forming hetero-nanostructures with other semiconductors, metals and organic molecules as well as tuning their collective interactions within their assemblies. This extremely wide tunability in properties of semiconductor nanomaterials presents many intriguing scientific questions and unique opportunities for transformative advances in technological applications. 

Currently, our research group is focused on studying metal-organic perovskites and colloidal quantum dots - both material systems exhibit intriguing properties tunable by design while looking set to revolutionize the field of solution processed optoelectronic devices. We are developing novel and advanced synthetic methods to achieve robust heterostructure formation, surface structure and impurity doping. We seek to understand and control the structure-property relationships in these materials. To this end, we employ a wide variety of techniques, including synchrotron based X-ray diffraction methods, to study their structure and self-assembly behavior from atomic to macroscopic length scales. We also employ optical spectroscopy and electrical transport measurement techniques to examine properties of the materials as functions of their structure. Newly obtained insights are applied to fabrication and testing of prototype devices to demonstrate improved performance. Particularly, our efforts will be focused on solution processing based device fabrication methods to simultaneously achieve a low-cost and high performance required for wide spread commercial deployment.

Education

B.E. ​Cooper Union, 2006

Ph.D. Cornell University, 2012

Post-Doc ​Columbia University, 2012 - 2014

"Our research enables development of novel hybrid organic-inorganic materials with tailored properties for next generation optoelectronic devices."

Joshua J. Choi Associate Professor

Research Interests

Materials Chemistry
Optoelectronic Devices
Solar Power
Nanomaterials and nanomanufacturing
Nanoelectronics and 2-D Materials

Selected Publications

"The impact of cation and anion pairing in ionic salts on surface defect passivation in cesium lead bromide nanocrystals" Journal of Materials Chemistry C, 9, 991-999 (2021). Lucy U Yoon, Matthew R Alpert, Hongxi Luo, Michael I Schapowal, Eric N Holmgren, Geoffrey M Geise, Christopher Paolucci, Joshua J Choi.
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"A new metric to control nucleation and grain size distribution in hybrid organic–inorganic perovskites by tuning the dielectric constant of the antisolvent" Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 9. 3668 - 3676 (2021). Blaire a Sorenson†, Lucy U Yoon†, Eric Holmgren, Joshua J Choi, Paulette Clancy (†Co-first Authors)
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"Relationship between the Nature of Monovalent Cations and Charge Recombination in Metal Halide Perovskites" ACS Applied Energy Materials, 3, 1298-1304 (2020). Katelyn a Dagnall, Benjamin J Foley, Shelby a Cuthriell, Matthew R Alpert, Xiaoyu Deng, Alexander Z Chen, Zeming Sun, Mool C Gupta, Kai Xiao, Seung-Hun Lee, Ying-Zhong Ma, Joshua J Choi.
Abs
“Understanding the formation of vertical orientation in two-dimensional metal halide perovskite thin films” Chemistry of Materials, 31, 1336-1343 (2019). Alexander Z Chen, Michelle Shiu, Xiaoyu Deng, Mustafa Mahmoud, Depei Zhang, Benjamin J Foley, Seung-Hun Lee, Gaurav Giri, Joshua J Choi.
Abs
"Impact of Crystallographic Orientation Disorders on Electronic Heterogeneities in Metal Halide Perovskite Thin Films", Nano Letters, 18, 6271-6278 (2018). Benjamin J Foley, Shelby Cuthriell, Sina Yazdi, Alexander Z Chen, Stephanie M Guthrie, Xiaoyu Deng, Gaurav Giri, Seung-Hun Lee, Kai Xiao, Benjamin Doughty, Ying-Zhong Ma, Joshua J Choi.
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"Origin of vertical orientation in two-dimensional metal halide perovskites and its effect on photovoltaic performance" Nature Communications, 9, 1336 (2018). A. Z. Chen, M. Shiu, J. H. Ma, M. R. Alpert, D. Zhang, B. J. Foley, D.-M. Smilgies, S.-H. Lee and J. J. Choi*.
Abs
"Room Temperature Processing of TiOx Electron Transporting Layer for Perovskite Solar Cells" The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 8, 3206–3210 (2017). X. Deng, G. C. Wilkes, A. Z. Chen, N. S. Prasad, M. C. Gupta*, and J. J. Choi*.
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"Origin of long lifetime of band-edge charge carriers in organic–inorganic lead iodide perovskites" Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114, 7519-7524 (2017). T. Chen, W.-L. Chen, B. J. Foley, J. Lee, J. P. C. Ruff, J. Y. P. Ko, C. M. Brown, L. W Harriger, D. Zhang, C. Park, M. Yoon, Y.-M. Chang, J. J. Choi* And S.-H. Lee*.
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"Improved Charge Collection in Highly Efficient CsPbBrI2 Solar Cells with Light-Induced Dealloying" ACS Energy Letters 2, 1043-1049 (2017). J. S. Niezgoda, B. J. Foley, A. Z. Chen and J. J. Choi*.
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“Entropy Driven Structural Transition and Kinetic Trapping in Formamidinium Lead Iodide Perovskite” Science Advances, 2, e1601650 (2016). T. Chen, B. J. Foley, C. Park, C. M. Brown, L. W. Harriger, J. Lee, J. Ruff, M. Yoon, J. J. Choi*, and S.-H. Lee*
Abs

Awards

NASA Early Career Faculty Award 2015
VSGC New Investigator Award 2015