News

2022

Congratulations to Jason Ye

16 June 2022

Many congratulations to Jason, a PhD student in the group, for being awarded a PhD studentship from the Cambridge Philosophical Society.

Welcome to Dr. Huimin Zhu

1 June 2022
Warm welcome to Dr. Huimin Zhu, who is an honorary research fellow working with us. She is funded by the Energy for Future Postdoctoral Fellowship, and her official host is the University of Strathclyde, with Dr. Fabien Massabuau

Reunions at the 2022 Spring MRS in Hawai'i

26 May 2022

It was wonderful to meet again with colleagues from the global Materials community at the Spring MRS in Honolulu. We co-organised Symposium EQ08 on low-dimensional and quantum dot semiconductors, and enjoyed a symposium dinner with the invited speakers (pictured below). Robert, Jason and Yi-Teng all presented at the conference as well.

Congratulations to Dr. Li!

24 January 2022
Many congratulations to our former PhD student, Dr. Zewei Li, who has now had his award of PhD formally confirmed by the University of Cambridge. Zewei was examined by Prof. Dr. Thomas Bein (Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich) and Prof. Caterina Ducati (University of Cambridge), and passed his defence with flying colours last year. See some of Zewei's papers from his PhD following this link, and this link.

Group receives ERC Starting Grant!

10 January 2022
We are delighted to announce that the group has received a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC)! This grant will allow us to push forward the development of sustainable materials for indoor light harvesting to power the Internet of Things. Read about the news release following this link, and follow this link to read the news release on our work with the underpinning proof-of-concept results. Postdoc and PhD openings coming soon.

Welcome to Dan!

4 January 2022
A warm welcome to Dr. Dan Price, who is joining us to work on our President's Excellence Fund project on nanopackaging to improve RNA-based vaccine stability. Dr. Price is working with us and the group of Dr. Peter Petrov. Find out more about Dr. Price from the Teams page.

2021

Excellence Fund project featured in news

8 December 2021
Our project, awarded through the Imperial President's Excellence Fund scheme, is featured on the College news website. Read the article following this link. This project is a collaboration between us, Dr. Peter Petrov (Materials), Dr. Rongjun Chen (Chemical Engineering) and Prof. Jerry Heng (Chemical Engineering). We aim to develop nanoporous storage packaging to enable RNA-based vaccines to be stable under near-ambient conditions, thus improving their global reach.

Presence at Fall MRS

7 December 2021
Several group members presented at the Fall Materials Research Society (MRS) Meeting & Exhibit. Jason went to Boston to present his work in person on perovskite nanoplatelets and surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy. Robert delivered two invited talks virtually on AP-CVD growth of oxide semiconductors on thermally-sensitive absorbers for photovoltaics. Disha also presented her work from her summer internship on nuclear energy storage.

Group Christmas gathering

3 December 2021
We had a fun time gathering all together before the Christmas break to share our research activities and goals for the next year

Welcome to Kavya

19 November 2021
Warm welcome to Kavya Dudipala, who is joining our group for a PhD working on ABZ₂ materials for photovoltaics.

Zewei passes PhD viva

18 November 2021
Many congratulations to Zewei Li, who passed his PhD viva with minor corrections. His examiners were Prof. Dr. Thomas Bein (Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich) and Prof. Caterina Ducati (University of Cambridge).

In memoriam: Christina Kong

11 November 2021
We are saddened by the passing of Christina from a road accident last month. Christina was a vivacious student who had a strong community spirit. She had a passion for sustainability, and recently spoke about her work and her development as a doctoral researcher in a recent video that featured during COP26 week, which can be viewed following this link. Her tenacity, diligence and intelligence were exactly what was needed in science. But beyond her academic skills, she was a compassionate person who built a large network of friends amoung her colleagues in both Materials and Chemistry, and she helped to bring our group together as a team during the pandemic. Her tragic passing has deeply affected us as well as many other people across College, and we will all treasure our memories of her.

Sachin elected to Academy

6 November 2021
Congratulations to our postdoc, Dr. Sachin Rondiya, who has been nominated as as a Young Associate of the Maharashtra Academy of Sciences in India!

Yi-Teng award prize at E-MRS!

23 September 2021

Congratulations to our PhD student, Yi-Teng Huang, who was awarded a prize for best contributed talk on novel solar absorber materials at the European MRS conference.

Congratulations to Dr. Yi!

18 September 2021
Many congratulations to our alumnus Dr. Ziyue (Phoenix) Yi who has completed his PhD and now graduated. Ziyue worked on metal-halide perovskite thin films for light-emitting diodes, focussing on understanding degradation mechanisms and achieving stable blue emission.

Zewei's paper published

4 September 2021
Congratulations to final-year PhD student Zewei Li, whose joint first-author paper has been published today in Advanced Functional Materials. This work unravels the role that grain boundaries in Cs₂AgBiBr₆ play on non-radiative recombination and ion migration, and also includes the first report of thin film transistors from this material. Read the paper following this link.

20th anniversary of the Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowship

12 August 2021
Robert speaks about his experience with the Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowship in the video released on the 20th anniversary of the scheme.

We have a new doctor in the house!

23 July 2021
Many congratulations to Dr. Rob Jagt, who is graduating from his PhD today. Rob worked on developing next-generation photovoltaic technologies, including perovskite-silicon tandems and bismuth oxyiodide for photovoltaics and beyond. 

Group awarded grant from President's Excellence Fund

20 July 2021
Our project on developing nano-packaging to enable vaccines to be stable under ambient conditions has been funded by the Imperial President's Excellence Fund for Frontier Research. This will form a collaboration between us, Peter Petrov (Materials), Rongjun Chen (Chemical Engineering) and Jerry Heng (Chemical Engineering). This project can enable vaccines to be distributed without cold-chains, thus significantly reducing costs and allowing vaccines to have greater reach worldwide.

Zewei presents work at CAM-IES meeting

8 July 2021
Zewei, a PhD student in the group, presents his work on carrier and ion transport in Cs₂AgBiBr₆ double perovskites at the Centre for Advanced Materials for Integrated Energy Systems (CAM-IES), held at Robinson College in Cambridge. Find out more about Zewei in our Team page.

Welcome to Sachin!

1 July 2021
Warm welcome to Dr. Sachin Rondiya, who has just joined our group to work our new EPSRC project on ABZ₂ materials for photovoltaics. Find our more about Sachin in our Team page.

Comprehensive review on perovskite nanocrystals published

17 June 2021
Jason and Robert contributed to a comprehensive review on the state of the art in halide perovskite nanocrystal research. This involved 70 authors and spans over 200 journal pages, covering synthesis through to properties and applications. What a gargantuan effort! Read the paper following this link.

Robert receives Imperial President's Award in Research!

15 June 2021
Robert has been awarded one of the Imperial President's Awards for Outstanding Early Career Researcher! Read the Imperial news release following this link.

Robert gives invited talk at Spring E-MRS

3 June 2021
Robert delivers an invited talk on double perovskites in Symposium E (exotic solar absorber materials) at the European Materials Research Society conference, held virtually (normally held in Strasbourg, France).

Robert gives talk in JUMP2Excel workshop, hosted virtually by Manchester

1 June 2021
Robert gives an invited seminar in a workshop on photovoltaic materials systems held virtually by the Joint Universal activities for Mediterranean PV integration Excellence (JUMP2Excel) and hosted by the University of Manchester. 

Blog on our work published on the Department page

27 May 2021
Piece on our work and thoughts on perovskites and their derivatives published on the Departmental blog page. This can be accessed following this link.

Symposium at the 2022 Spring MRS Conference in Hawaii approved!

18 May 2021
We are co-organising a symposium on low dimensional semiconductors for electronics at the 2022 Spring Materials Research Society (MRS) Meeting & Exhibit, which will be taking place in Honolulu, Hawaii. This symposium, EQ08, is part of the joint initiative between the Korean MRS and MRS, and involves co-organisers from KAIST, Samsung and NREL. Find out more about the symposia at the 2022 Spring MRS following this link.

Future Energy piece published in Joule

20 April 2021
Robert and colleagues from GeorgiaTech and Cambridge wrote an invited article in Joule discussing the pressing challenges that need to be overcome to bring halide perovskite photovoltaics to market. These discussion drew off the discussions from the community at Symposium CT02-EL08 at the 2020 Virtual MRS he co-organised with colleagues. Read the Future Energy piece following this link.

Robert gives invited talk at 2021 Virtual Spring MRS

19 April 2021
Robert presents group's work on bismuth oxyiodide photovoltaics and indoor PV in Symposium EN07 on thin film semiconductors.

Group awarded seed grant from MIT-Imperial seed fund

12 April 2021
We have been awarded a project to work with Prof. Rafael Jaramillo at MIT on novel materials for gas sensing of pollutants. Seven teams working between MIT and Imperial were funded through this scheme. Read about it following this link.

Jason's work published in Angewandte Chemie!

17 March 2021
Congratulations to Jason Ye, who first-authored a review paper on defect passivation in halide perovskite thin films and nanocrystals in Angewandte Chemie. This was a collaboration with Dr. Lakshmi Polavarapu and Prof. Michael Saliba. Read the review following this link.

Group's work featured on World Sustainability Day

4 March 2021
The group's work is featured on World Sustainability Day by the Department of Materials. Read the article following this link.

Seminar at the London Centre for Nanotechnology

25 January 2021
Robert gives an invited talk at the LCN lunchtime seminar series on bismuth-based photovoltaics, including the group's recent work on tuning the band gap of bismuth-based double perovskites and bismuth-based indoor photovoltaics. Watch the talk following this link.

Talk at the Materials Society seminar series

20 January 2021
Robert gives an invited talk at the Materials Society seminar series on the group's latest reseach into indoor photovoltaics

Our work on the cover of Advanced Energy Materials

7 January 2021
The work we co-led on perovskite-inspired materials for indoor photovoltaics is featured on the back cover of the January issue of Advanced Energy Materials. Read the original paper following this link.

Welcome Yuchen!

4 January 2021
Welcome to Yuchen Fu, who joins the group as a PhD student.

2020

Robert co-chairs three keynote sessions at the 2020 Virtual Spring/Fall MRS

4 December 2020
Despite the pandemic, science moves forward. The Materials Research Society (MRS) conference is usually held in Boston and brings together materials scientists from across the world. This year, the Fall MRS was merged with the Spring MRS and held online for the first time. Robert co-organised the joint CT02-EL08 symposium on metal-halide perovskites and lead-free alternative absorbers for photovoltaics. He co-chaired three live keynote sessions. Follow these links to watch back the recordings of the sessions on upscaling, Pb-free absorbers and tandem devices (registration required). Many thanks to the speakers and other co-chairs (Sam Stranks, Hema Karunadasa and Kaining Ding) who made this possible. Congratlations to the awardees of the CT02-EL08 contributed talk and poster prizes, supported by Oxford PV, ACS Energy Letters, Joule and Matter.

Robert co-chairs live poster session at 2020 Virtual Spring/Fall MRS

3 December 2020
Along with Libai Huang, Robert co-chaired one of the live poster session at the 2020 virtual MRS. The poster presenters had the chance to give a short presentation on their work, followed by a discussion with the other presenters and attendees.

Fall E-MRS symposium approved!

27 November 2020
Robert, along with a team from London, Korea and the US, will be organising a symposium on Earth-abundant next-generation materials for solar energy. This be held in Warsaw, Poland, in September 2021 and there will be an exciting line up of speakers. 

Robert gives talk at Warwick Chemistry

26 November 2020
Robert gives a talk on lead-free perovskite-inspired materials, how to tune their band gap, and their applications in indoor photovoltaics as part of the RSC Lecture Series in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Warwick.

Robert receives WIN Rising Star Award and gives Keynote Talk

24 November 2020
Robert delivers a keynote talk at the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN) Research Leaders Celebration in receipt of the WIN Rising Star Award. Follow the link to view the video.

Robert elected a Fellow of the IOM3, a Chartered Engineer and a Chartered Scientist

23 November 2020
Robert has been elected a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3), a Chartered Engineer and a Chartered Scientist all at once!

Group awarded grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

21 November 2020
The group has received a research grant from the UKRI Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, as part of the New Investigator Award scheme. This project will focus on the development of ABZ₂ materials for photovoltaics, with particular focus on defect tolerance. 

Press release on group's work on indoor photovoltaics

13 November 2020
Our collaborative work on perovskite-inspired materials for indoor photovoltaics is featured by Imperial, PV Magazine, Materials World and other news outlets. Check out the video on the work from CBS, following this link. Read the original paper here.

Robert gives talk to Energy Futures Lab

22 October 2020
Robert gives a talk on bismuth-based semiconductors for outdoor and indoor light harvesting in the energy seminar series hosted by Imperial's Energy Futures Lab. Watch the seminar here. Read the blog on this seminar following this link.

Two PhD students join us at Imperial

1 October 2020
Warm welcome to Christina Kong and Ivy Liu, who are joining us as PhD students. Find out more about them from the Teams page.

Paper highighted by Nature Physics

1 October 2020
Our upcoming review article on perovskite-inspired materials is highlighted by Nature Physics. Read the thesis in Nature Physics here. Follow this link to read the preprint of the review paper on arXiv.

Group awarded Royal Society Research Grant

1 October 2020
The group has received a Research Grant from the Royal Society to set up a wafer-scale atmospheric pressure chemical vapour deposition (AP-CVD) reactor to rapidly manufacture high-quality oxide buffer layers and transparent electrodes. Read more about our work on AP-CVD here.

Roadmap for PV Research

1 October 2020
The Materials for the Energy Transition Roadmaps are released. These were commissioned by the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and administered by the Sir Henry Royce Institute. Robert was an advisor for the photovoltaics roadmap, which involved 14 academic institutions/national labs and 10 companies working in the photovoltaics sector in the UK. Read the Imperial news release here.

WIN Rising Star

18 September 2020
Robert receives a Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN) Rising Star Award for excellence at an international level in nanotechnology research. Read more

RSC Emerging Investigator

6 August 2020
Robert is included in the 2020 Emerging Investigators issue of the Royal Society of Chemistry's Journal of Materials Chemistry C. Follow this link to read the profile, and this link to read his contributing paper.

Group's work featured in the press

9 July 2020
Our work on developing p-type oxide buffer layers for semi-transparent perovskite solar cells is featured by Imperial, PV magazine and other news outlets.

Materials for the Energy Transition webinar

15 June 2020
We are part of the series of roadmaps on the future of renewable energy research in the UK to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. These roadmaps are summarised and presented at a webinar co-organised by the Insitute of Physics and the Sir Henry Royce Institute. Robert delivers the summary of the photovoltaics roadmap. View the webinar here.

Online seminar at University of Twente

10 June 2020
Robert gives an invited seminar on the processing of next-generation top-cells for tandem photovoltaics at the IMS Colloquium at the University of Twente. Many thanks to Prof. Monica Morales-Masis (leader of the M³ Optoelectronic Materials group) for the invitation.

Robert joins Editorial board of IOP Nanotechnology

21 May 2020
Robert is invited to join the Editorial board of Nanotechnology, which is published by the Institute of Physics. He is looking forward to adding to the energy dimension of the journal.

Online seminar at TCU

28 April 2020
Robert delivers a seminar on the development of metal-halide perovskites for optoelectronics to a class at Texas Christian University. Thanks to Prof. Jeff Coffer for the kind invite.

Virtual perovskites@Imperial symposium

26 March 2020
Robert and Dr. Jarvist Frost co-organise a virtual symposium bringing together the community at Imperial working on metal-halide perovskites. This is part of the Centre for Processable Electronics.

Seminar at York

28 February 2020
Robert visits York for the day to deliver a seminar in the Department of Physics at the University of York on bismuth oxyiodide solar absorbers. Many thanks to Dr. Christina Wang - also an RAEng Research Fellow - for the invite!

Robert takes up his new faculty position at Imperial

2 January 2020
The group now officially starts a new chapter in the Department of Materials at Imperial!

2019

Invited talk at the Fall MRS

5 December 2019
Robert gives an invited talk on the group's work on AP-CVD growth of oxide buffer layers on perovskite solar cells in snowy Boston. Many thanks to former colleagues and mentors Prof. Kevin Musselman and Dr. David Muñoz-Rojas for the invite!

Robert awarded Sir Henry Royce Medal

24 October 2019
Robert was awarded the medal by the Institution of Engineering and Technology for the demonstration of excellence at an early career stage. The awarded is sponsored by the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation.

Three PhD students join

1 October 2019
Welcome to Yiru, Jason and Yi-Teng who have joined the group to start their PhDs! Find our more about them in the team page.

Tahmida awarded a scholarship!

16 September 2019
Many congratulations to Tahmida Huq for being awarded a scholarship from the Aziz foundation! This substantial award will help to support her research into bismuth-based solar cells. Find out more about Tahmida on the team page.

Lana successfully defends her PhD thesis!

9 August 2019
Many congratulations to Dr. Lana Lee for successfully defending her doctoral thesis! We wish her all the best for her new career at Johnson Matthey working on battery materials.

Tahmida wins Margaret B Day Prize!

6 August 2019
Congratulations to Tahmida for winning the Margaret B Day Prize from the British Federation of Women Graduates for her work on next generation layered solar absorbers.