Scalable Manufacturing of Single-Crystal Perovskite Optical and Electronic Devices: Follow-On

In this project, we will develop technologies for scalable manufacturing of single-crystal perovskite optical and Electronic Devices.

Energy filtering for high Seebeck voltages in ordered nanocomposites

Single crystal perovskite fibre

In this project, we will explore the application of single-crystal perovskite fibres.

High Performance Thermoelectric Film with Organic-Inorganic Van der Waals Heterostructures

Royal Society University Research Fellowship Renewal : Oliver Fenwick

Nanomaterials have dimensions <100 billionths of a metre, and on these lengthscales they can acquire completely new properties. Examples include metal quantum dots <10 nanometres in diameter which emit light, or graphene which, being a single layer of carbon atoms, is nano-sized in one dimension and exhibits extraordinary electronic and thermal properties. This is a huge family of materials with a diverse range of properties, many of which cannot be achieved with conventional materials. However, the small size of nano- objects can make them difficult to manipulate, hard to integrate in devices or even toxic. It would be highly desirable to achieve some of the benefits of nanomaterials in bulk materials which are easier to process into practical devices. In this project I will develop materials which are crystals consisting of 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.

Rapidly Disintegrating Transient Electronics

This project provides a solution for high-performance transient electronics using bespoke electronic and structural materials at critical locations such that triggering degradation of these materials results in destruction of the system as a whole. The project maximises the use of bio-derived materials to minimise toxicity of breakdown products ensuring user and environmental safety.

Graphene-Organic Devices for Smart Displays

This 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.

All-printed thermoelectric generators

Organic 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

KiriTEG (Smart Grants)

The 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.

HYPERTHERM - Hybrid organic-inorganic Perovskite Thermoelectrics

HYPERTHERM is a career-development project for an outstanding experienced researcher which will enable her to develop new ideas and prepare for an independent research career. In this context, HYPERTHERM will develop new materials for thermoelectric generators – devices which can generate electrical energy from waste heat. These devices have huge potential as part of the future sustainable European energy portfolio, but their deployment is currently limited by material toxicity, cost of production, scarcity of key elements (such as tellurium), and incompatibility of the materials with advanced manufacturing techniques such as printing. 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. A successful outcome of HYPERTHERM will deliver new doped perovskite materials and a deeper understanding of their electronic and physical properties. It will train a very promising  researcher in an emerging research field and provide her with the skills boost and enhanced independence she needs to become a research leader of the future.

University Research Fellowship

Oliver holds a prestigious 5 year Royal Society University Research Fellowship which aims to better understand organic thermoelectric materials.  Thermoelectric generators are devices with many potential uses as they convert waste heat into useful electrical energy and because of this, they address issues such as energy generation and efficient energy use.  Once example of where this could be used is in a wireless device placed on someone’s skin which could generate electricity from the temperature difference between their body and the surrounding air. This could potentially provide power for a medical diagnostic device that has no bulky external power supply, but returns real-time medical data without the patient going to hospital.  Such devices could revolutionise future healthcare provision. Yet thermoelectric generators are not in common use outside of niche military and space applications due to the performance, cost and sometimes even the toxicity issues associated with the existing inorganic thermoelectric materials in use.  Oliver's research is investigating the potential of using an organic thermoelectric material which would address these issues. 

Replacing Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) with next-generation graphene in electronic devices

ITO is the most common transparent conducting material used today because of its high electrical conductivity, high optical transparency and ease of deposition. ITO is currently used in a huge range of applications, e. g. solar cells, displays, touch panels, smart watches, etc. More than 90% of the display market uses ITO. However, Indium is expensive and scarce.  Repacing ITO with graphene is therefore a hugh market opportunity. This project will explore replacing ITO with graphene in a number of devices including organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs).

International Exchanges Scheme: Italy

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.

Towards in-vivo electrochemical imaging with flexible, light-addressable electrodes

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.

Towards in-vivo electrochemical imaging

Flexible organic semiconductor-based chips can be used as light-addressable electrochemical sensors. This project will develop such chips.

Organic Thermoelectric Materials: Molecular and Supramolecular Approaches.

Thermoelectric materials generate a voltage when placed in a temperature gradient through the Seebeck effect, and this voltage can be harnessed in thermoelectric generators to generate electrical power from waste heat. These materials therefore have enormous potential for meeting part of our energy needs and in powering wearable and energy-autarkic devices, but improved materials are required before this can be realised. There have been recent reports of high thermoelectric performance in certain organic materials. Organic thermoelectric materials are in the very early stages of development, but the excitement surrounding them lies not only in their thermoelectric performance, but also in their relatively low cost, solution processability and their mechanical flexibility which is a huge advantage in many wearable electronic applications. Furthermore, their properties are chemically tunable. In short, they could revolutionise the field of thermoelectric power generation. Organic semiconductors exhibit a rich variety of structures with crystalline, polycrystalline and amorphous morphologies that depend on both molecular structure and processing. The electronic behaviour of organic semiconductors is equally diverse with both hopping and band-like transport observable in different materials or in the same material at different temperatures, and even superconducting phases in a small number of cases. This diversity of morphologies and electronic regimes is one of the strengths of organic semiconductors as it allows many additional degrees of freedom for material optimisation. This proposal will establish understanding of how to control these degrees of freedom to maximise thermoelectric performance. Objectives: This project aims to provide physical insight into materials properties that will accelerate the development of organic thermoelectric generators. Specifically: To characterise thermoelectric properties of organic semiconductors in regimes of hopping transport, band-like transport and superconductivity and compare with known models. To exploit supramolecular assembly to form 1-dimensional chains of molecules and compare their thermoelectric properties with conventional bulk phases.

Low dimensional organic thermoelectric structures

Study of the physics of 1- and 2-dimensional organic thermoelectrics assembled by either bottom-up or top-down approaches.

Hybrid Thermoelectric Materials Through DNA Assembly

One of the key challenges for society in the next century will be to develop new technologies to generate enough energy to meet our growing demand. Thermoelectric materials which generate electricity from waste heat have a huge potential to meet part of our energy needs, but existing materials do not satisfy the performance requirements of applications. Developing novel approaches to thermoelectric materials is therefore a key challenge of materials science. Hybrid approaches which combine the excellent electrical properties of carbon materials with the mechanical flexibility and chemical versatility of organic materials are a very promising platform on which to optimize thermoelectric performance. In this project, we intend to develop strategies to control the self assembly of Carbon- and DNA based nanostructures to tune thermoelectric properties. The project has two main aims: •    Develop composites that exploit DNA to tune the thermoelectric properties of carbon nanotube networks with application to thermoelectric generators. •    Develop DNA-carbon nanotube nanostructures as nanoscale platforms for single-molecule thermoelectric investigations. To apply please send Dr Fenwick (o.fenwick@qmul.ac.uk) your CV, a short statement outlining why are you interested in this PhD opportunity.

Halide perovskite thermoelectric materials

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.

Completed project (2013 - 2015) MULTITUDES: Multifunctional organic electronics through nano-scale controlled bottum-up tailoring of interfaces.

Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship. Increasing functionality of organic devices through chemisorption of optically addressable monolayers on the electrodes.

Charge transport in organic thermoelectric materials

Study of the effect of the regime of charge transport (band-like, hopping and superconducting) on the thermoelectric properties of organic materials.

Candidates for postdoctoral fellowships

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.