Funding source: Royal Society Start: 19-10-2020 / End: 18-10-2023 Amount: £389,434This project will develop crystalline materials comprising well-defined nano-objects arranged on a regular lattice. These nano-objects will be either two-dimensional (ultrathin layers within the material), one-dimensional (linear structures within the material), or zero-dimensional (quantum dots within the material), with unusual electronic properties in all cases.
These bulk materials, which are straightforward to process, will retain low-dimensional characteristics. These unusual characteristics will be used to boost the efficiency of energy devices. In particular, this project will investigate their use for thermoelectrics (conversion of waste heat into electricity), and photovoltaics, delivering in both cases new materials for improved energy devices. |
Funding source: Innovate UK Start: 01-04-2021 / End: 30-09-2023 Amount: £238,656This project will develop graphene-based organic light-emitting diodes. It is a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) between Paragraf Ltd. and QMUL. The KTP scheme helps businesses in the UK to innovate and grow by linking them with an academic or research organisation and a graduate researcher. |
Funding source: Royal Society Start: 01-10-2017 / End: 31-08-2022 Amount: £110,748Organic thermoelectric materials are in the early stages of development, and the excitement surrounding them lies in their low cost, solution processability (they can be printed) and their mechanical flexibility. In short, they could revolutionise thermoelectric power generation.
In this project, an OTEG will be fabricated on paper by a novel printing process. It is a cheap, scalable process that is much-needed for OTEGs to become reality. Furthermore, this project follows the conviction that a fundamental understanding of OTEG device physics will accelerate the development of improved thermoelectric materials |
Funding source: Innovate UK Start: 01-08-2020 / End: 31-07-2022 Amount: £131,117The KiriTEG project will develop flexible, miniaturised TEGs allowing the design of non-rigid thermoelectric energy harvester devices. This will be achieved by development of innovative semiconductor materials, materials deposition techniques and production processes to allow the commercial scaling of the project deliverables. This project utilises the skills of 'kirigami' (variant of origami that includes cutting as well as folding) to produce a new generation of low cost, highly flexible devices. These energy harvesting devices will operate between -40C and +120 C, which covers the vast majority of low grade harvesting applications. |
Funding source: EU Commission - Horizon 2020 Start: 11-03-2019 / End: 10-03-2021
HYPERTHERM will investigate new thermoelectric materials, specifically hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites, which are solution processable (printable), abundant and low cost. These materials are well-known in their undoped form in solar cells, and there are good indications that their superb electrical and thermal properties are well-suited to thermoelectric applications. However, to become good thermoelectric materials, they must be electrically doped to increase their conductivity. The principle scientific aim of this proposal is therefore to learn how to control doping in these exciting materials to boost their thermoelectric performance. |
Funding source: The Royal Society Start: 10-05-2015 / End: 18-10-2020
Organic Thermoelectrics in Multiple Structural and Transport Regimes. |
Funding source: Innovate UK Start: 01-01-2019 / End: 30-09-2020
Indium is expensive and is on the EU Critical Materials List. This project is to explore replacing Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) with next-generation graphene provided by the industrial partner Paragraf. |
Funding source: The Royal Society Start: 01-03-2017 / End: 31-08-2019
The purpose of this project is to develop a deep understanding of the role selfassembly in tuning thermoelectric properties of organic materials.
Organic thermoelectric materials are heavily doped organic semiconductors. Despite their propensity for self-assembly into a range of intriguing morphologies, this mechanism has not been fully investigated and developed in the context of thermoelectrics. |
Funding source: Royal Society Start: 15-03-2018 / End: 14-03-2019
High-resolution mapping of chemical activity of cells on surfaces is important for the understanding biological processes. We are aiming to develop the first flexible and biocompatible electrochemical imaging chip for in-vivo imaging of cell activity. The groundwork for this will be laid by this PhD project by developing novel organic semiconductor coatings suitable for high-resolution photocurrent imaging and measurement of cell-signalling processes such as cell impedance, cell surface charges, release of metabolites and neurotransmitters. |
Flexible organic semiconductor-based chips can be used as light-addressable electrochemical sensors. This project will develop such chips. |
Hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites have great promise as thermoelectric materials due to their exceptionally low thermal conductivities and high charge mobilities. This project will focus on characterising a range of these materials prepared by vapour deposition or from solution. |
Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship.
Increasing functionality of organic devices through chemisorption of optically addressable monolayers on the electrodes. |
We are interested in candidates who may wish to jointly apply for national fellowshipschemes (EPSRC, Leverhulme etc.) or European fellowships (Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships). Candidates should make contact well before the submission deadline for the relevant fellowship scheme. |
Study of the effect of the regime of charge transport (band-like, hopping and superconducting) on the thermoelectric properties of organic materials. |
This project is co-hosted with Dr Matteo Palma, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences. |
Study of the physics of 1- and 2-dimensional organic thermoelectrics assembled by either bottom-up or top-down approaches. |
A Chinese student with a physics or materials science background is sought for a CSC PhD scholarship to work in the laboratory of Dr Oliver Fenwick. |