Rohan Mahajan
California
The Harker School
Rohan Mahajan, 17, of Cupertino, submitted a materials science project to the
Intel Science Talent Search that researched ways to improve the efficiency of
photoelectrochemical (PEC) cells, used in sustainable hydrogen production. PEC
cells consist of a semiconductor photoanode and a platinum cathode, and use
sunlight to generate hydrogen and oxygen from water. Rohan developed a new way
to dope the photoanode (titanium dioxide) with sulfur. He synthesized
nanowiresenhanced by elemental doping, quantum dot sensitization, or bothand
showed that some of these configurations increased the light absorption of the
photoelectrodes more than sixfold. This approach could be used to further
increase the efficiency of PEC devices and might also be applicable to
photovoltaic cells. Rohan attends The Harker School in San Jose, where he is
president of the chemistry club and captain of the debate team. The son of Umesh
and Manjula Mahajan, he serves on the Bay Area Youth Health Advisory Board.
Rohan also volunteers with both the Pacific Free Clinic, where he helps diagnose
patients and instruct health education classes, and the Lucile Packard
Childrens Hospital, working in the maternity department.
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