Molecular Design for the Energy Harvesting Materials (ROMANOVAU20SCIEC)

Energy is one of many global challenges for our modern society. Lighting devices based on the Organic Light-emitting Diodes (OLEDs) contains the emissive layer of the material which is capable to emit light with 100% energy efficiency. But, innovations are still required on multiple fronts to increase the colour purity, device lifetime, light output of OLED devices, and improve the manufacturing process. New energy materials are highly required.

Applications are sought for this PhD project in the synthesis and study “Energy Harvesting Materials by Molecular Design” with a particular focus on the discovery of the new light-emitting materials and their use in the future organic electronic technologies. The successful candidate will be supervised by Dr Alexander Romanov and Prof. Steve Meech. The project is part of a comprehensive programme exploring a new family of strongly photo-emissive coinage metal complexes based on carbene-metal-amide (CMA) structures. CMAs show excellent photoluminescent properties and are capable of producing OLEDs with champion efficiency (Science, 2017, 356, 159; Adv. Mater., 2018, 1802285).

The successful applicant will become a part of the newly established team at the University of East Anglia and will work in collaboration with the Optoelectronics group at the University of Cambridge (research group of Dr Dan Credgington). This project also involves collaboration with a major industrial OLED manufacturer. The post will involve travels to the University of Cambridge (Cavendish Laboratory) for the collaboration work and meetings.

The position would suit an ambitious, highly motivated and practical researcher with some experience in synthetic inorganic chemistry and/or organic materials chemistry. There will also be the opportunity to develop complementary skills in the photophysical characterisation of the materials and fabricate OLED devices and therefore an additional interest in materials science would be desirable.

For more information on the supervisor for this project, please go here: https://people.uea.ac.uk/a_romanov

This is a PhD programme.

The start date of the project is 1 October 2020.

The mode of study is full-time. The studentship length is 3 years.

Entry requirements:

Acceptable first degree in Chemistry.

The standard minimum entry requirement is 2:1.