Dr Wiseman Mpilo Dlamini received a PhD in Physics from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) for his research entitled, Plasmon as a Mechanism to Improve Performance of Bulk-heterojunction Organic Solar Cells.
Hailing from Mhlabashane near the small town of Ixopo in KwaZulu-Natal, Dlamini overcame humble beginnings to rise to academic success. “I never thought this would happen to me,” he said. “I am overwhelmed with joy and pride. I had fallen in love with UKZN so much that I even influenced my siblings to study here. At home we are a family of UKZN graduates,” he said.
The threat of global warming and diminishing reserves of fossil fuels motivated Dlamini to research solar cells, “Organic solar cells are easier to produce, flexible and more environmentally friendly than inorganic (silicon) solar cells. Currently, the whole world relies significantly on fossil fuels for energy, and this has created major environment pollution and global warming problems. Solar (sunlight) energy has been considered as one of the most promising, abundant and clean energy sources. Solar cells are used to harvest this energy and convert it to usable electricity. My research focused on improving the performance of polymer/organic material-based solar cells using metallic nanoparticles. Polymer solar cells are the subject of intense research and development with the aim being to replace their inorganic (silicon based) counterparts. My research also used metallic nanoparticles to improve the sunlight-to-electricity conversion efficiency of the solar cells. The solar cells incorporated with the nanoparticles showed significantly enhanced performance.The significance of this research is that it adds to the body of knowledge and contributes to the quest to find alternative clean, cheap energy sources to solve energy scarcity and global warming/climate change,” said Dlamini.
Dlamini thanked a number of organisations and people, including the National Metrology Institute of South Africa, the NRF, NSFAS, his supervisor and his family.
“I wish that the youth of this country, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds and rural areas can be more inspired and believe that they too can achieve success. As the youth of today, we are afforded opportunities that the generation before us was not,” he said.
