Dr Gugu Kubheka
RESEARCH PROJECT: Modelling of fluorinated transition metal oxides for application as energy materials in flexible solar panels
Dr Gugu Kubheka, a proud graduate of Rhodes University, holds a PhD, a Master’s degree in nanotechnology — obtained with distinction, an Honours degree in Chemistry and a triple major Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry, Geology and Mathematics. Since graduating she has conducted post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Pretoria as well as at the University of Johannesburg.
Throughout her journey, Dr Kubheka has been privileged to have received considerable support and funding, in addition to being mentored and supervised by great women in science, whose own successes inspired her passion for science.The belief and support of mentors and supervisors has boosted Dr Kubheka’s confidence as a scientist.
Thus far in her career, Dr Kubheka has won the best oral presenter at the NanoAfrica conference in 2014; been awarded a number of NRF postgraduate scholarships, including the DAAD short term grant; published in peer-reviewed journals; enjoyed research visits to international institutions in Europe and Asia and been selected to attend the prestigious Nobel Laureate proceedings in 2022.Gugu views her receipt of the L’Oréal-UNESCO award for women in science as one of her major successes, and is excited about the opportunity for further training that the research funding will enable.
Dr Kubheka is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa (NECSA) where she is working on the modelling of Fluorinated Transition Metal oxides for application as energy materials in flexible solar panels.Inspired by the global crises in the food, energy and water sector, and in particular the current state of affairs of the South African energy supply, Dr Kubheka is searching for solutions that are sustainable and provide relief to South Africa’s current energy shortage, through technologies developed using raw materials mined and processed in South Africa.
Her work aims to develop advanced materials that can harness 100% of the sun’s energy and convert it to electricity using theoretical calculations. This would ultimately enable the new materials to be produced in a laboratory and applied to solar panels and subsequently scaled up to pilot - and ultimately industrial scale - production.Current materials used in solar panel production have high installation and manufacturing costs: a problem which this research will combat.
Despite the challenges of this project - including a scarcity of funding and long-term or permanent employment contracts for scientists, that often limits the successes of projects due to time constraints and uncertainties - Dr Kubheka has achieved considerable success.
Gugu views each of her successes as a scaffold to the next endeavour, and hopes to one day hold a permanent space in one of the great research institutions in South Africa, where she can conduct her research and advance her career.She is confident of a better future thanks to consistent growth of South African institutions, research and development and innovation.
Dr Kubheka’s advice to the next generation of young scientists is to generate ideas that solve challenges that our society faces and then convert their intellectual product to tangible products that will solve these real world problems.She sees huge potential in motivating tertiary institutions to introduce economic and business management elements into scientific courses as she feels this would enable the application of science towards economic growth and sustainable development.
Research Summary
The energy crisis, in particular electricity has become a global issue, with South Africa constantly having to undergo load shedding. Finding an alternative to fossil fuels as a major source of electricity generation is of utmost importance. Dr Kubheka’s research seeks to find materials which can be used to convert the sun’s energy into electrical energy using solar panels.
The current materials used in solar panels have high manufacturing and installation cost, hence the usage of solar technology for power generation is only about 1% of the energy market. Therefore, there is still a need to design and develop low-cost and efficient energy materials to help lower clean energy costs. In her research, she aims to improve the properties of these materials by creating defects in their structure using theoretical calculations. The ideal structures from the calculations will be produced for commercialisation purposes.