Mankind is approaching a crisis in energy generation and utilization. Traditional fossil fuel reserves are

diminishing and legislative issues regarding CO2 emission will make use of existing lower grade reserves

unattractive. New technologies have to be developed to satisfy the ever-increasing energy demand and to

maximize efficient energy usage. The materials chemist, through the design of new materials with novel

properties and by controlling interfacial interactions between materials, will play a crucial role in these

endeavours and in enabling the paradigm shift that is required.

This project is centred around two core and inter-related issues (i) energy generation from photovoltaics

using sunlight and (ii) efficient lighting devices based on light-emitting electrochemical cells (LECs) and

organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs).

Both of these topics are areas of intense activity world-wide. Within Europe the PIs research group is one of

the leaders in the field. However, as research efforts in these areas are proving successful and proof-ofprinciple

systems are being established and optimized, a new factor needs to be addressed. State of the art

photovoltaic devices based upon the dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) most frequently utilize inorganic dyes

comprising ruthenium complexes of oligopyridine ligands.

The projected next generation mass market OLEDs and prototype LECs are based upon iridium complexes

containing cyclometallated pyridine ligands. A traditional criticism of these approaches related to the costs of

the raw materials although this is in reality

low compared to the costs of other components. However, the price reflects in part the availability of these

metals and in this respect devices based upon ruthenium (1 ppb by atom in Earth crust) or iridium (0.05 ppb

by atom in Earth crust) are unsustainable.

This project is concerned with the development of complexes based upon abundant and sustainable first row

transition metals to replace second and third row transition metals in these devices. Initial efforts will centre

upon complexes of copper(I) and zinc(II) which have well-established photochemistry and photophysics

making them suitable for such applications. The PI has already established proof-of-principle for the

replacement of ruthenium by copper in DSCs and is a world leader in this technology.

The work on the two projects will involve (i) materials synthesis and characterization (ii) computational

modelling (iii) device construction and testing and (iv) property optimization.