Semiconductors for Energy Applications Group

In the Semiconductors for Energy Applications Group, we use a combination of computational and experimental methods to develop new materials, heterostructures and nanostructures for renewable energy applications, particularly photoelectrochemical and photocatalytic hydrogen generation, solar cells and batteries.

Research program

Solar hydrogen generation

One of the critical barriers to increased use of renewable energy sources is their intermittency. To overcome this barrier, an efficient means of storing the energy must be found.

One approach is to store the energy in the form of chemical energy in clean fuels. This can be done with photoelectrochemical (PEC) or photocatalytic water splitting - a practical approach to generating hydrogen using energy from sunlight. This process requires a photoactive semiconducting material, that can absorb sunlight to produce electron-hole pairs, which are used to drive the water splitting redox reaction.

While there are known semiconductors that can be used for water splitting (e.g. TiO₂), they all have deficiencies that limit their solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency. These include wide band gaps, that limit how much of the visible part of the solar spectrum can be absorbed, and poor surface catalytic properties.

In our group, we are focusing on materials of complex compositions - e.g. ternary and quarternary compounds, or binary compounds combined together in the form of solid solutions or heterostructures. These complex compositions provide greater capacity to tune the material properties and hence performance.

We use computational methods (e.g. DFT) to understand the structure-property relationships of such complex compositions and structures and hence design optimised materials, in combination with experimental work to synthesise, characterise and test the performance of materials.

We focus on optimising band gaps and understanding surface catalytic processes in order to tune the surface properties to minimise the reaction activation barriers.

Catalysis

We also collaborate with researchers in a range of fields, providing computational analysis to aid interpretation of experimental results.

In particular, we work with researchers from the UNSW Particles and Catalysis Research Laboratory to understand the surface chemistry and reactivity of catalysts.

Batteries and photovoltaics

Our group also uses computational methods to study semiconductors for solar cells and materials for Li- and Na-ion batteries, particularly ion transport and electrode-electrolyte interactions.

Group news

Congratulations to Hongyang (Jason) Ma and Xinxin Lu, who have recently been awarded their PhDs. Hongyang is now a post-doctoral researcher in the Quantum Materials & Device Research Group, UNSW School of Physics.
Welcome to Owen Bowdler, Jason Wooi and Thibault Cosseron De Villenoisy who have recently joined the group as PhD students.