Organic Energy Materials 

A scientist with hear net is peking trough science equipment and smoke
Photographer: Thor Balkhed

We exploit and investigate the physics and chemistry of novel organic and composite materials to design and fabricate the next generation of energy devices.

Principal investigator: Reverant Crispin
Co-investigators: Isak Engquist, Viktor Gueskine, Zia Ullah Kahn

In Organic Energy Materials we design organic materials with a specific function for energy transport, conversion or storage. One key advantage of organic materials is that they are composed of atomic elements of high natural abundancy; which is highly relevant for mass implementation of energy technology. Energy devices can be separated into conversion and storage devices. Both types can be designed to operate as solid state or electrochemical devices.

The research unit of Organic Energy Materials is composed of about 30 researchers and divided into 3 research groups: organic energy storage (OES), organic energy harvesters (OEH) and organic electrochemical device (OED).

Our research spams from fundamental research on materials (e.g. organic electroactive polymers, forest materials, organic dyes, liquid organic hydrogen carriers) to their implementation in energy devices (e.g. organic batteries, organic redox flow batteries, organic electrolyser, organic thermoelectrics, piezoelectrics).

The use of 2D-materials and forest materials are combined in new nanocomposites for electrocatalysis, electrical conductor or thermal management. Some of our activities are also devoted to the fabrication of materials and devices with additive manufacturing methods.

Finally, we promote the Swedish spirit of entrepreneurship (Gnosjöandan) to support start up companies from birth until they take off.

Research groups

Publications from Organic Energy Materials

2025

Hamid Ghorbani Shiraz, Mikhail Vagin, Zia Khan, Radoslaw Chmielowski, Reverant Crispin, Magnus Berggren (2025) TaS2 nanosheets embedded in a polymer ionomer catalyzing hydrogen evolution reaction International journal of hydrogen energy, Vol. 100, p. 915-920 (Article in journal) Continue to DOI
Angus Hawkey, Xabier Rodriguez-Martinez, Sebastian Lindenthal, Moritz C. F. Jansen, Reverant Crispin, Jana Zaumseil (2025) Bandgap-Dependent Doping of Semiconducting Carbon Nanotube Networks by Proton-Coupled Electron Transfer for Stable Thermoelectrics Advanced Electronic Materials (Article in journal) Continue to DOI

2024

Neha Sepat, Mikhail Vagin, Stefano Carli, Edoardo Marchini, Stefano Caramori, Qilun Zhang, Slawomir Braun, Zhixing Wu, Penghui Ding, Kosala Wijeratne, Ioannis Petsagkourakis, Ujwala Ail, Eleni Pavlopoulou, Tero-Petri Ruoko, Simone Fabiano, Klas Tybrandt, Mats Fahlman, Reverant Crispin, Magnus Berggren, Viktor Gueskine, Isak Engquist (2024) Decoupling Conductivity, Heterogeneous Electron Transfer Rate, and Diffusion in Organic Molecular Electrocatalysis: Oxygen Reduction Reaction on Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) Small (Article in journal) Continue to DOI
Ujwala Ail, Jakob Backe, Zia Khan, Rui Shu, Jaywant Phopase, Magnus Berggren, Reverant Crispin (2024) Safe and stable Zn-lignin batteries with a biopolymer based hydrogel electrolyte Journal of Materials Chemistry A (Article in journal) Continue to DOI
Saeed Mardi, Ujwala Ail, Mikhail Vagin, Jaywant Phopase, Reverant Crispin (2024) On the Reversibility of Sustainable Symmetric Aqueous Organic Redox Flow Batteries Advanced Energy & Sustainability Research (Article in journal) Continue to DOI
Divyaratan Kumar, Viktor Gueskine, Ziyauddin Khan, Reverant Crispin, Mikhail Vagin (2024) Metal Ion-/Proton-Coupled Electron Transfer (MPCET) on ortho-Quinone ACS Omega, Vol. 9, p. 38498-38505 (Article in journal) Continue to DOI
Penghui Ding, Mikhail Vagin, Mohammad Javad Jafari, Alexandar Mehandzhiyski, Viktor Gueskine, Tobias Abrahamsson, Igor Zozoulenko, Thomas Ederth, Reverant Crispin (2024) Migration-mitigated crossover of organic redox anions across a proton-exchange membrane Sustainable Energy & Fuels, Vol. 8, p. 4882-4892 (Article in journal) Continue to DOI
Reverant Crispin, Igor Zozoulenko (2024) Hall measurements reveal band-like transport in high-mobility solution-processed organic semiconductor films NATIONAL SCIENCE REVIEW, Vol. 11, Article nwae266 (Article in journal) Continue to DOI
Aiman Rahmanudin, Mohsen Mohammadi, Patrik Isacsson, Yuyang Li, Laura Seufert, Nara Kim, Saeed Mardi, Isak Engquist, Reverant Crispin, Klas Tybrandt (2024) Stretchable and biodegradable plant-based redox-diffusion batteries Materials Horizons, Vol. 11, p. 4400-4412 (Article in journal) Continue to DOI
Divyaratan Kumar, Leandro R. Franco, Nicole Abdou, Rui Shu, Anna Martinelli, C. Moyses Araujo, Johannes Gladisch, Viktor Gueskine, Reverant Crispin, Ziyauddin Khan (2024) Water-in-Polymer Salt Electrolyte for Long-Life Rechargeable Aqueous Zinc-Lignin Battery Energy & Environmental Materials (Article in journal) Continue to DOI

Researchers in Organic Energy Materials

News about Organic Energy Materials

 Illustration generated with AI technology.

2d-paper

"2D-Paper" proposes to combine 2D materials and cellulose to create a new thermally conductive paper substrate for flexible electronics.

Flexible module generates electricity from heat, or cooling and heating from electricity

Imagine a flexible module capable of converting waste heat into electricity, whether the surface it's attached to is flat or curved. This module can also generate heating or cooling from electricity.

Battery om fingertip.

Eco-friendly and affordable battery for low-income countries

A battery made from zinc and lignin that can be used over 8000 times. This has been developed by researchers at LiU with a vision to provide a cheap and sustainable battery solution for countries where access to electricity is limited.

Education, collaboration, innovation

Education

The Organic Energy Material group is involved in the education of phd students and contributes to several high-level courses (scientific instrumentation, organic electronics, electrochemistry). 

Collaboration

Our researchers can interact with other scientists through our the 3 centers involving LOE: The Advanced Functional Center, the Wood Wallenberg Science Center; and the Digital Cellulose Center and the EU network HORATES.

Innovation

We also promote innovation by supporting start-up companies (Ligna Energy AB,  PARSNORD and CELLIFON) and establishing long term collaborations with key industrial partners (RedoxmeIMRA-EuropeBillerud).

Join us!

Organisation