Sustainable energy

Solar panels in a field

Scalable electronic materials and devices for sustainable energy generation (solar cells, solar fuels, thermoelectrics), storage (batteries, sustainable fuels and chemicals) and use (high efficiency lighting, displays and computing)

Research activites

Theme Leads and Champions

Prof James Durrant

Prof James Durrant

James Durrant is Director of the CPE and leads a research group in Chemistry that is focused on developing new chemical approaches to solar energy conversion, both harnessing solar energy either to produce electricity (photovoltaics) and molecular fuels (eg hydrogen). He is co-leading our theme of Materials for Sustainable Energy.

Prof Jenny Nelson

Prof Jenny Nelson

Jenny Nelson is a CPE board member and is co-leading our theme on Materials for Sustainable Energy. Jenny heads a large research group in Physics modelling and simulating the movement of charge in polymer materials with the aim of designing improved materials for photovoltaics, photocatalysis and energy storage.

Prof Magda Titirici

Prof Magda Titirici

Magda Titirici, is Imperial's Chair of Sustainable Energy Materials and is Champion of our theme. It's an area she is very passionate about and which drives the research efforts in her group from renewable energy technologies to energy storage and conversion.

Research Highlights

New efficiency record for ultrathin solar cell materials

An international team from Imperial College London, ICFO and UCL have found a novel technique to enable record-breaking efficiency in solar cells.
Organic photodetection

Investigating small molecule design for efficient OPDs

CPE researchers have investigated the role of molecular geometry in the creation of different types of trap states.
Solar cell

Ultrafast lasers used to probe next-generation solar cells

Researchers have tracked the first fractions of a second after light strikes solar cells, providing insights into how they produce electricity.