A Professor of Condensed Matter Physics at the Federal University of Technology Akure, (FUTA) Sunday Oluyamo has urged governments in Nigeria to encourage assist and provide enabling environment for silicon-based companies to thrive because of the potential of silicon to revolutionize several industries and address certain societal issues. Speaking on the topic “Condensed Matter Physics: Seemingly Infinite and Precisely Limitless in Functionality” while delivering the 156th Inaugural Lecture of the institution on Tuesday July 4,2023, Professor Oluyamo canvassed for collaboration among the academia, industry and government to promote the development of the material, adding that the second most important industrial resource after crude oil is silicon.
According to him, “The second most important industrial resource after crude oil is silicon, which is used to create computer processors, directly convert solar energy into electricity, calibrate, x-ray diffraction, alloy constituents and create organosilicon”. He said there should be additional safety regulations and standardization of characterization techniques to ensure that nanoparticles produced meet required specifications for various applications.
The Don who added that transparent-based solar cell materials have been proven to be one of the solutions to the poor efficiency associated with fossil fuels energy converters because they are free of degradation challenges. He noted that land forms in Ondo State can also be sources of high-grade silicon materials for useful industrial applications in areas like lithium-ion batteries, biomedical devices, photovoltaic/solar cells, computer industries and a host of others.
He said “Condense Matter Physics is the study of the structure and behaviour of the matter that makes up most of the usual and unusual stuff that surrounds us every day”. He disclosed that CMP has revolutionized the study of solid and bulk materials to Nano sizes with diverse applications in biology/life sciences, materials engineering, econometrics, econo-physics, medical and agricultural sciences. He said “in fact, what everyone in the gathering carries and all conveniences attached are all embedded condensed matter. Hence, CMP is universally useful in functionalities”.
He, however, said that the most of these energy solution materials are still being developed on laboratory scale as a result of inadequate funding. He therefore called for government intervention to scale up the industrial level participation by providing a technologically driven environment.
Presenting the Inaugural Lecturer, the Vice Chancellor, Professor Adenike Oladiji who was represented by the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academics), Professor Taye Amos described Professor Oluyamo as an academic of repute. She noted that the Lecturer is an international scholar whose publications had graced the pages of reputable journals and conference proceedings across the world with over 100 of such publications.
She added that CMP is considered one of the largest and most versatile sub-fields in Physics because of its diversity of topics and phenomena. She said that breakthroughs in the field of CMP have led to discovery and use of liquid crystals, modern plastic, composite materials and other materials of everyday applications and utilization.
