Zernike seminar: Prof. Shalini Singh "Nanostructured Materials for Energy Storage and Conversion: Towards Predictive Synthesis and Design"

Abstract

Energy conversion and storage, along with decarbonisation are areas of critical requirement in the development of sustainable material compositions. Given the dependence of current key technologies on critical and non-sustainable materials, an enormous need exists to design and commercialise materials with enhanced properties yet with conscientious choice of sustainable elemental compositions. In this talk, I will discuss our research at University of Limerick on the development of controlled synthesis of the expansive compositional landscape of ternary metal chalcogenides with sustainable compositions that inherently gives a wide spectrum of properties attractive for energy application. I will discuss the design of range of functional material from compositionally complex nanocrystals to metal-semiconductor hetero-nanostructures by using tunable synthetic levers in ligand assisted colloidal synthesis. The role of ligand-precursor coordination chemistry will be discussed to achieve fine tuning of the crystal phase and dimension will be explained. Further, the potential for compositional engineering in order to manipulate key functional properties will be highlighted. Towards the end, their potential application in batteries and thermoelectrics will be discussed. The talk will reflect on how the fundamental insights gained here paves the way toconsolidate colloidal chemistry as a retrosynthetic pathway for novel material design.