Svenja Janke and Hannes Houck present their research

1pm, Wednesday
1 November 2023

PLT

This is a departmental event for all staff and students. Please come along! Refreshments will be provided on the Science Concourse from 12:45.

"Towards Discovery of New Materials for Energy Efficient LEDs and Solar Cells", Dr Svenja Janke

Electrical energy surrounds us. A morning might start with switching on lights, reading the news on a smartphone screen and a heated beverage. A sustainable future requires cheap, renewable materials that both produce and consume energy efficiently. So far, almost all existing energy materials are based either on inorganic substances -- conductive, yet not very tuneable -- or organic substances -- highly tuneable for light gathering or emission, but not very conductive. Promising new materials are a combination of both; so-called hybrid materials. But understanding, characterising and designing these materials is highly challenging, because how new properties in hybrid materials arise from the combination of organic and inorganic components is unclear, in parts, because their combined structure is unclear.

To meet this challenge, I develop a computational methodology to describe how hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites absorb and emit light. Using this methodology, I will show how changing the anion in the inorganic component can lead to changes in the organic component's light absorption by changing the organic component's orientation. Building up on this finding, I will show how the absorption spectra can be impacted by different organic orientations in the organic-inorganic material.

"From small molecules to smart materials: my research past, present and future", Dr Hannes Houck.

With research interests at the interface of organic reactivity, photochemistry and material synthesis, I focus on finetuning the reactivity of chemical building blocks and harvest responsive properties of molecular systems to design smart materials. This departmental talk will give a brief overview of my former, ongoing and planned research activities, and will invite you to identify collaborative opportunities as I kick-start my research group at the University of Warwick.