RESEARCH THEMES Materials for Energy

Materials science and engineering provide the essential building blocks of the transition to a zero-pollution economy, enabling us to design and model new technologies, products and processes and improve existing technologies to minimise their impact on the natural world or reduce their running costs. Our Materials for Energy theme reflects the importance of materials research in underpinning work across a broad range of energy topics and the centrality of Imperial’s materials community in our work.

The theme also reflects our emphasis on sustainability. Realising a Net-Zero economy will require a substantial increase in the mining and processing of critical materials, from the lithium and cobalt used in electric vehicles to the tellurium in photovoltaic solar panels. It is vital that these materials are sourced and used in a responsible manner or replaced with novel materials that can provide effective, sustainable and economically viable alternatives.

Centre for Advanced Structural Ceramics

Led by Professor Eduardo Saiz, the Centre for Advanced Structural Ceramics is a world-leading centre for structures ceramics research and teaching. Recent energy and decarbonisation research has covered areas including the structural reliability of ceramic-metal joints for fuel cells; the development of novel fuels and wastecleanup materials for nuclear fission, and radiation shielding materials for fusion; and more resource efficient fabrication techniques, such as recycling ceramic materials used in steel production.

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/structural-ceramics/

Composites Centre

Led by Professor Emile Greenhalgh, the Composites Centre is a multi-departmental group featuring researchers from the departments of Aeronautics, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Civil and Environmental Engineering. Their diverse research portfolio ranges from fundamental, exploratory research to highly-focused research targeted at the immediate needs of industry. In the energy sector they are working with car manufacturers on use of new materials and creating multifunctional composites that store electrical energy.

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/composites-centre/

Computational NanoElectrochemistry Group

Led by Dr Clotilde Cucinotta, the Computational NanoElectrochemistry Group’s research interests focus on quantum mechanical modelling of materials and electrochemical (EC) processes at the nanoscale. The team currently works to develop a new methodology to simulate EC devices – such as fuel and solar cells, batteries, supercapacitors and sensors - in operation, including the effect of applied potential and electric currents. They use this to study problems like EC corrosion, water splitting, redox switching and current induced effects at nanointerfaces.

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/c.cucinotta

Energy Materials and Processing

Led by Dr Ann Huang, the Enegry Materials and Processing group centres on the development of new materials and advanced manufacturing technologies to make ordered electrode nano- and microstructures for rechargeable batteries. The group uses a new type of correlative imaging combining X-ray computed tomography (XCT) and X-ray incoherent scattering to operando map the chemical species inside batteries and understand the underlying phenomena in order to address the challenges of energy storage. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/a.huang

Experimental Solid State Physics Group

The Experimental Solid State Physics Group, based in the Department of Physics, has interests in renewable energy, materials for energy, nanophotonics, plasmonics, metamaterials, functional materials and plastic electronics. The team has expertise in areas such as organic and inorganic solar cells, solid oxide fuel cells and hybrid solar thermal/PV systems.

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/experimental-solid-state/

Frost Group

Led by Dr Jarvist Moore Frost, the Frost Group specialises in the development of new materials and technologies for renewable energy storage and high efficiency photovoltaics. Using computer simulation, the group aims to accelerate the discovery and development of these materials, avoiding costly trial and error. The group is based in the Department of Chemistry in the Molecular Sciences Research Hub at the White City campus. https://frost-group.github.io/

Interfacial Electrochemistry Laboratory

Led by Dr Ifan Stephens from the Department of Materials, the Interfacial Electrochemistry Laboratory conducts research aimed at enabling the large-scale electrochemical conversion of renewable energy to fuels and valuable chemicals and vice versa. Such processes will be critical in order to allow the increased uptake of renewable energy. Among the electrochemical applications being investigated are water electrolysis for the storage of renewable electricity as hydrogen, hydrogen fuel cells, li-ion batteries, and N2 Reduction to NH3 for the local production of fertilisers.

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/interfacialelectrochemistry-group/

Lischner Group

Led by Dr Johannes Lischner and based in the Department of Materials and the Thomas Young Centre for Theory and Simulation of Materials, the Lischner Group studies the structural and electronic properties of nanomaterials and energy materials using advanced electronic structure methods. Its current research is focussed on the theory of electronic excitations in complex materials with applications to twisted bilayer materials, plasmonic nanoparticles, core electron spectroscopy of adsorbates and defects in 2D materials. https://sites.google.com/site/jlischner597/

Solid State Electronic Structure Group

Led by Professor David Payne in the Department of Materials, the Solid State Electronic Structure Group works on materials discovery through synthesis and is exploring the opportunities that machine learning can offer for new materials discovery. A main focus of Professor Payne’s research is the development and application of novel photoelectron spectroscopic techniques. This includes a state-of-the art high-pressure photoelectron spectroscopy (HPXPS) which, along with a high-throughput XPS system, forms the Advanced Photoelectron Spectroscopy Laboratory at Imperial.

https://payneresearch.org/

Sustainable Energy Materials

Led by Professor Magda Titirici from the Department of Chemical Engineering, the Sustainable Energy Materials group focuses on the usage of environmentally friendly precursors and processes to obtain carbonbased materials for applications in renewable energy technologies. The group’s research centres on understanding property-performance relationships through in-situ characterisation techniques to improve and tailor our materials for each specific requirement.

https://www.titiricigroup.com/

Nanoanalysis Group

Research in processable electronics has a very broad scope with many promising applications, including: displays, solar cells, transistors, biosensors and photonic devices. Despite the diversity of uses, all these applications are based on thin films of functional materials. In each case their performance is critically dependent on these thin film structures of functional materials and the interactions between them. Led by Professor Ji-Seon Kim from the Department of Physics, the Nanoanalysis Group focuses on this fundamental issue, seeking to understand and establish the correlation between nanostructures of functional materials and the performance of associated devices, and so to develop plastic electronics for next generation technology.

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/nanoanalysis-group/

Materials Design Group

Led by Professor Aron Walsh at the Thomas Young Centre, the Materials Design Group works on the design and optimisation of advanced materials using highperformance computing. Its research on computational materials chemistry combines quantum mechanics with data-driven machine learning and multi-scale modelling approaches with applications for solar cells and fuels, batteries, thermoelectrics, and solid-state lighting. http://wmd-group.github.io/

Multifunctional Nanomaterials

Led by Dr Camille Petit from the Department of Chemical Engineering, the Multifunctional Nanomaterials group designs, synthesises, characterises and tests porous materials that can address separation challenges related to environmental and energy sustainability. When relevant and possible, the group confers its materials a photocatalytic property in addition to their sorptive nature as a way to intensify processes. This leads to the creation of multifunctional materials. The group’s main focus is on porous nitrides, metal organic frameworks, porous polymers and composites thereof for applications in molecular separations and solar energy conversion.

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/multifunctionalnanomaterials/

Skinner Group

Led by Professor Stephen Skinner, the interests of the Skinner Group centre on the properties and structures of ion-conducting oxides, with emphasis on the identification and characterisation of new materials using in-situ high-temperature techniques such as x-ray and neutron powder diffraction techniques, secondary ion mass spectrometry and low-energy ion scattering. This work has potential applications in the development of solid oxide fuel cells, electrolysis and permeation membranes and more have been identified as having application in the field of novel solid-state gas sensors. https://www.stephenskinnerlab.com/