Juan-Pablo Correa-Baena’s passion for inventing new materials that can be used in energy applications, light sensors, and light emission began in the backyard of his childhood home. His first interactions with material science were playing as a child with his grandfather, a retired engineer with the mindset of an inventor. He spent a lot of time helping his grandfather tinker with epoxies and invent new devices. Along the way, he picked up his grandfather’s enthusiasm for creating new materials and mechanical objects.

Correa-Baena pursued an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering, but he realized he was more interested in the materials side of what he was learning. In his master’s program, he specialized in environmental engineering before finding his way to materials science. Correa-Baena was working with a group on photocatalysis for water remediation, which uses solar energy to convert various products in the water that harm the environment. However, he found that he was more interested in photons, the light particles, and the inorganic catalysts that absorb the photons and convert the water. 

“I was more interested in the inorganic part, the actual catalyst, and how to make sure that catalyst absorbs light,” said Correa-Baena, assistant professor and Goizueta Early Career Faculty Chair in the School of Materials Science and Engineering. Titanium dioxide, for example, absorbs light and then creates radicals at the interface that degrade damaging organic material. Correa-Baena continued to research solar cells during his Ph.D. studies and has been working on developing new materials for solar energy conversion since then.

His research group is currently developing the next generation of solar panels while asking fundamental scientific questions, he said: “How does the material we’re making more efficiently convert photons from solar energy into electrical energy? And how do we make those materials last longer? Which chemicals will enable solar panels to last for years?” Durability, sustainability, and efficiency are key principles of his research.

Correa-Baena’s group also is working on replacing transistors in smartphones with quantum communication technology within the next decade. Transistors can only be miniaturized to a certain point, but Correa-Baena is exploring how to store information at the subatomic level. He is collaborating closely with physicists and chemists on this project. For him, it was Georgia Tech’s strong spirit of collaboration that inspired him to join the School of Materials Science and Engineering five years ago.

Though his research is exciting, Correa-Baena said the most gratifying part of work as a professor is mentoring students. He enjoys seeing his students become “storytellers in science,” he said, by teaching them how to conduct research in quantum mechanics and then communicate their research to the scientific community. This ability to communicate with scientists of various backgrounds is especially important for materials scientists.

Correa-Baena called materials scientists “the bridge between chemists, physicists, and engineers.” They are able to draw on the fundamental principles that physicists are trying to understand in more depth and derive a practical application for their research. Materials scientists also are able to communicate with other engineers, such electrical engineers who can build the necessary circuits. Materials are at the center of everything we do, and materials scientists are at the center of the conversation of the next generation of new materials and technology such as solar energy and quantum communication.