Building functional nanostructures for clean energy technology through organic chemistry.
Principal Investigator: Catherine Aitchison
The production of clean, renewable energy is crucial in the fight to limit climate change. Technologies to generate and store this energy rely on components with a long list of desirable properties. Developing materials with well-defined nanostructures enables many of these properties to be controlled and enhanced. In the Functional π-Materials Group, we harness the huge flexibility of organic chemistry to synthesize conjugated polymers and molecules that self-assemble into secondary and tertiary structures that are beneficial to performance. We are particularly interested in exploiting π-stacking interactions to form nanostructures with improved electronic or ionic transport. We make and test materials for various solar fuels, photovoltaic, and membrane applications. Like most research at LOE, we aim to take advantage of organic materials’ low cost, high tunability, and high sustainability metrics.
Research
Self-Assembled Nanostructures for Electron and Ion Transport
We aim to develop conjugated systems with ordered, useful nanostructures. A theme in our work is to generate materials with columnar π-stacking. This through-plane interaction can be used to give improved charge transfer properties and can help drive the formation of lamellar structures with, for example, well-defined pores. Our interest in crystallizable aromatic groups is not confined to one particular type of material—we are interested in covalent organic frameworks (COFs), macrocycles, linear polymer nanofibers, and molecular materials. We therefore use a range of condensation, cross-coupling, and catalyst transfer polymerizations, as well as aromatic heterocycle chemistry for backbone synthesis and substituent or side chain alteration.
Within ion transport, we are developing ultrastable COF membranes for redox flow batteries; the highly porous structures of COFs can be size- and functional group-tuned to control ion and water uptake. Within charge transport, we are investigating molecular and macrocycle columnar interlayers for the stabilization of perovskite photovoltaics.
While there has been huge progress in renewable electricity provision in the last two decades, more than half of the world’s energy demands are actually fuel-based rather than electrical. Technology to generate sustainable, non-fossil chemical fuels is urgently required. Solar fuels—those derived from solar energy-driven electrochemical reactions, such as water splitting and CO₂ reduction—are a particular focus for the group. We are at the forefront of research into photocatalytic routes that employ organic semiconductors.
Solar fuels research is sometimes dubbed artificial photosynthesis, and with our organic semiconductors, we do aim to mimic some of the bespoke functionality generated by nature. Organic chemistry allows us to tune material properties like optical gap and porosity to best balance the many factors that influence photocatalytic performance. One feature of organic semiconductors is that charge separation often requires a heterojunction. We are using our supramolecular approach to make new self-assembled materials with donor-acceptor heterojunctions built-in.
Current projects are centered around crystallization-driven self-assembled nanofibers for hydrogen production and templated donor-acceptor COFs for gas-phase CO₂ reduction. The production of clean, renewable energy is crucial in the fight to limit climate change. Technologies to generate and store this energy rely on components with a long list of desirable properties. Developing materials with well-defined nanostructures enables many of these properties to be controlled and enhanced. In the Functional π-Materials Group we harness the huge flexibility of organic chemistry to synthesize conjugated polymers and molecules that self-assemble into secondary and tertiary structures that are beneficial to performance. We are particularly interested in exploiting π-stacking interactions to form nanostructures with improved electronic or ionic transport. We make and test materials for various solar fuels, photovoltaic and membrane applications. Like most research at LOE, we aim to take advantage of organic materials low-cost, high tunability, high sustainability metrics.
Renewable fuels and source chemicals
Material properties and redox reactions in solar fuels
Donor acceptor heterojunction aids with charge seperation
Publications
Latest publications shown, for full list see Instiutional repository
The Functional π-Materials group is located in the Chemistry lab at the Laboratory of Organic Electronics in Norrköping. Here we are currently building a state-of-the-art lab for conjugated polymer and molecule synthesis, self-assembly and nanoprocessing techniques as well as our own photocatalysis testing set-up. In addition, we have access to great research infrastructure through shared facilities at LOE . We collaborate extensively within the Laboratory of Organic Electronics and with groups from other institutions. Want to collaborate? Contact Cath directly: catherine.aitchison@liu.se To LOE Chemistry lab To shared facilities at LOE
The WISE programme
Our lab is part of the WISE programme (The Wallenberg Initiative Materials Science for Sustainability) funded by Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. WISE, funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, is the largest-ever investment in materials science in Sweden. WISE gives us access to a whole network of materials scientists and research infrastructure such as the redox.me testbed for industry scale electrochemical testing. To the WISE programme To the redox.me test bed
We always look for talented postdocs. If you are passionate about developing new organic semiconductors, self-assembly, photocatalysis, or related fields, please email Cath at catherine.aitchison@liu.se. Please include your CV, and a short description of your scientific interests. Your interests do not have to completely match what we already do in the group! With strong candidates, we are happy to write joint proposals for postdoctoral programs such as the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions.
If you want to find a lab for your MSc thesis, or for your ERASMUS project work, we want to hear about your interests! We frequently offer suitable projects for undergraduates. Please email Cath at catherine.aitchison@liu.se. Please include a copy of your CV, and a short description of your scientific interests.
