Energy Seminar – Week 8: Panel Discussion – Chemistry at Oxford and the energy transition: Research contributions past and present, and future plans
Prof James Durrant, Department of Chemistry, Prof Robert Hoye, Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory, Dr Daniel Congrave, Department of Chemistry
- Start Tuesday 02 Dec 2025 5:00pm
- Finish Tuesday 02 Dec 2025 7:00pm
- Venue Diversity Room
- Postcode OX1 3PY
- Register for event
Summary: Materials Chemistry Challenges for Next-Generation Photovoltaics – Prof Robert L Z Hoye
Photovoltaics are one of the key renewable energy technologies. Not only important for decarbonising energy generation in the utility sector, they can enable a wide range of applications requiring autonomous, mobile energy supplies. This talk covers the role of materials chemistry within this interdisciplinary challenge. First, Prof Hoye will discuss the importance of innovating with materials used for photovoltaics in terms of exceeding the efficiency limit of current industrial single-junction devices, as well as applications in sustainably powering autonomous electronics for the Internet of Things and edge computing. Next, he will discuss the important role of fundamental understanding to design and optimise these emerging materials, and the capabilities within Oxford Chemistry. Finally, Prof Hoye will discuss synergies in the materials for photovoltaics with photoelectrochemistry, and the opportunities in bringing together these two fields.
Bio: Robert Hoye is an Associate Professor of Materials Chemistry at the University of Oxford, where he is also a Fellow of St. John’s College and a Royal Academy of Engineering Senior Research Fellow. Prof. Hoye completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge (2012-2014), followed by a postdoc at MIT (2015-2016), before returning to the University of Cambridge as a College Research Fellow (2016-2019). In 2020, he moved to Imperial College London as a Lecturer, then Senior Lecturer. In Oct. 2022, he moved to Oxford as Associate Professor. Prof. Hoye’s group focuses on developing inorganic semiconductors for energy applications, including metal-halide perovskite nanocrystals, and discovery of lead-free perovskite-inspired materials. His group’s research spans from fundamentals (including spectroscopy and computations) to materials synthesis and applications in photovoltaics, light-emitting diodes and detectors. Prof Hoye was awarded the 2021 Imperial President’s Award for Outstanding Early Career Researcher, as well as the 2024 RSC Beilby Medal and Prize. He is CTO of NanoPrint Innovations Ltd.
Summary: Key Challenges facing Organic Semiconductors for Electricity-Light Interconversion – Dr Daniel G Congrave
Organic electronic materials, based on ideally renewable and non-toxic carbon-rich molecules have the potential to change the way we live by complimenting and advancing technologies across applications, owing to an unparalleled combination of easily adjustable properties and diverse process-ability. This is exemplified by the commercialisation of the organic light emitting diode (OLED) in the high value-displays of over 50% of modern smartphones, and also in some larger screens. However, energy efficiency and device stability problems persist in commercial OLED displays, and it has not yet been possible to advance other promising organic technologies such as organic solar cells (OSC) and OLED lighting to the point of commercialisation. Dr Congrave will discuss the origin of these challenges and recent promising strategies toward solving them, including an example from his own recent research.
Bio: Daniel Congrave is a Royal Society University Research Fellow (URF) at the University of Oxford, where he is also a senior research fellow of St. John’s College. Dr Congrave completed his PhD at Durham University advised by Prof. Martin Bryce (2014–2018), followed by a postdoc with Prof. Hugo Bronstein at the University of Cambridge (2018–2020), before he was appointed as a Herchel Smith Postdoctoral Fellow in Organic Chemistry (2020–2024). In 2024 he moved to Oxford as a URF. Dr Congrave’s interdisciplinary research focuses on exploiting original structural organic chemistry to develop molecules that absorb and emit light in desirable and unprecedented ways, to tackle the fundamental problems holding back the application of organic semiconductors. In 2025 Dr Congrave was awarded and ERC Starting Grant.
Summary: Towards the sustainable synthesis of fuels and chemicals – Prof James Durrant
A key challenge for net zero is the sustainable synthesis of molecular fuels and chemicals. These include fuels for transportation where batteries do not provide sufficient range – e.g.: sustainable aviation fuels, fuels for shipping, green hydrogen, green ammonia for fertilisers, and sustainable molecular feed-stocks for the chemical industry. Whilst bio-derived fuels and chemicals offer a more sustainable alternative to fossil fuels, the availability of agricultural land and competition with food production limits their scalability. There is therefore increasing energy to harnessing renewable energy sources, in particular solar and wind, to drive the conversion of CO2, N2 and water into sustainable fuels and chemicals. Such pathways are often referred to as ‘Power-to-X’ – harnessing renewable electrons to drive the sustainable chemical reactions (e.g.: the synthesis of ‘e-fuels), or ‘Solar-to-X’: directly harnessing the sun to drive ‘artificial photosynthesis’. In his short talk, Prof Durrant will introduce some of these challenges, and how chemists are starting to address them, drawing upon some examples of his own research on photocatalytic and electrocatalytic water splitting for green hydrogen.
Bio: James Durrant is Professor of Photochemistry and Sustainable Energy in the Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford and Fellow of Magdalen College. He recently joined Oxford University from joint positions at Imperial College London and Swansea University. His research focuses on the use of transient optical spectroscopies to investigate the function of new materials for sustainable energy conversion, including materials for artificial photosynthesis, photocatalysis, solar cells and electrolysis. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2017 and appointed a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for services to photochemistry and solar energy research in 2022.