Welcome to the Schroeder Research Group! We are a synthetic chemistry group based in the Chemistry Department at University College London. Our research activities focus on the design and synthesis of functional materials for organic electronic applications. We are particularly interested in finding creative solutions for energy and healthcare applications, by exploiting the unique properties of π-conjugated molecules and polymers.
We take an interdisciplinary approach to problem-solving and work closely together with colleagues in chemistry, physics, materials science and engineering to develop and study the materials powering tomorrow’s technologies.
News
February 2024: Rikin, Mingyu and Chao did a brilliant job at introducing their PhD projects at the 1st year PhD talks within the Chemistry Department.
January 2024: Ryan’s work on neural tissue engineering using polypyrrole-collagen constructs has been published in Advanced Engineering Materials. This one has been a long time in the making and thanks to all our collaborators for their contributions!
January 2024: After slightly over 4 years in the group, we said goodbye to Megan, who took up a PDRA position at CHALMERS in the Giovannitti Group. Good luck in your new job and we hope we will keep the HPLCs running without your constant care!
December 2023: Congratulations to Ryan, the “biologist” in the group, for passing his PhD viva in the School of Pharmacy. It has been fun to learn about biological systems interacting with organic semiconductors over the years. Many thanks to Prof Paul Roach and Prof Wenhui Song for the viva examination. We wish Ryan all the best for his new adventures at AZ.
December 2023: Jessie and Aisha presented their work on self-healing coordination polymers and chiral organic semiconductors, respectively, at the Supramolecular Materials and Self-Assembly Workshop in London.
December 2023: Harsh’s excellent work on “Exploring Bismuth Coordination Complexes as Visible-Light Absorbers: Synthesis, Characterization, and Photophysical Properties” has been published in Inorganic Chemistry.
December 2023: The group pâtissier Aisha once again went above and beyond to summarise the year in the lab with personalised cookies 🙂
December 2023: Aisha took over the Boston MRS to present her work on chiral organic semiconductors and their potential in water splitting applications.
December 2023: Adibah attended the RSC Chemistry Poster Symposium to present her exciting work on low bandgap organic semiconductors.
November 2023: It has been a pleasure to attend the Royal Society’s UK-Taiwan Bilateral International Meeting in Taipei to discuss Climate Change, Energy and Carbon and the possibility of joint future collaborations between Taiwan and the UK.
November 2023: After three years of hard work, Megan successfully defended her PhD thesis. Congratulations Dr Westwood! Many thanks to Dr Mike Booth and Prof Iain McCulloch for conducting the viva and to Aisha, the group pâtissier, for an outstanding celebratory cake.
November 2023: Bob attended the RSC Faraday Discussions in Osaka to discuss current Challenges and prospects in Organic Photonics and Electronics.
October 2023: Bob was invited by the Institut Grand-ducal de Luxembourg to participate in their lecture series, featuring Luxembourgish researchers working abroad. He presented the group’s research on skin-wearable electronics and flexible organic semiconductors.
October 2023: We are thrilled that Stefania has selected our project, which is co-supervised by Prof. James Phillips in the UCL School of Pharmacy, for her rotation project as part of her CDT in Transformative Pharmaceutical Technologies. The project focuses on nerve regeneration using organic semiconductors, and we’re looking forward to the collaboration.
October 2023: A warm welcome to Iulia, Irem, Andi, and Jakub as they are joining the group for their MSci research projects. Their projects cover a wide range of exciting topics, including self-healing materials for wearable electronics, chiral semiconducting polymers for energy applications, and near-infrared absorbing polymers for photoacoustic imaging.
September 2023: What a bustling month it’s been as we welcomed four new PhD students to our team! Rikin is returning to the group, focusing on the creation of novel organic semiconductors for wearable sensors. Mingyu has embarked on his PhD journey, aiming to design exceptionally selective skin wearable sensors for healthcare monitoring. Chao, under the co-supervision of Professor Alethea Tabor, is set to explore the development of organic semiconductors for enhanced integration with biological systems. Meanwhile, Matilde, co-supervised by Dr. Nicola Gasparini at Imperial College, is delving into the study of near-infrared organic semiconducting materials for optoelectronic applications.
September 2023: Beth, Naim, and Rikin have successfully completed their experimental work and have now submitted their final MSc reports. We wish them the best of luck for their new opportunities.
August 2023: Adibah presented her work on the opto-electronic properties of her novel ultra low bandgap organic semiconductors at the RSC Photophysics and Photochemistry Group Early Career Meeting in Glasgow.
July/August 2023: The group has been busy welcoming summer students in the lab! We recently had the opportunity to welcome two participants from the In2Science program for a week. Additionally, Celine joined us through the Laidlaw Programme, and Alex and Irem successfully secured internships through the MAPS Summer Research programme.
July 2023: Adibah and Ana presented posters at this year’s 16th International conference on materials chemistry (MC16) in Dublin, whilst Bob discussed our most recent data on self-healing conjugated polymers.
June 2023: The group was very busy with 2nd year poster presentations and final year PhD talks this year. Adibah, Ana, Jessie and Aisha all presented posters of their ongoing research, and Megan joined Adibah in showcasing their nearly completed PhD work to the Department. Well done everyone!
June 2023: Aisha, Jessie and Bob took part in a careers day at Great Ouse Primary Academy in Bedford to talk to students about careers in science and demonstrate some colourful chemistry experiments.
June 2023: Alberto and Barnabas completed their MSci projects with their SARPIC presentations. They both did a great job and we wish them all the best for their future adventures.
May 2023: Megan is exploring the Alsatian capital and took the opportunity to present her work on supramolecular interactions in organic semiconductors at the European MRS Spring meeting.
May 2023: Congratulations to Ryan, Pete and Megan for getting their work on Schwann cell behaviour on doped organic semiconductor surfaces published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry C. What a fantastic group effort!
April 2023: Adibah, Megan, and Pete delivered presentations on their research at the latest London Polymer Group Meeting, while Jessie and Aisha showcased their posters, making the group highly visible at the event.
April 2023: Pete and Bob attended the MRS Spring Meeting in San Francisco and presented the group’s recent work on self-healing organic semiconductors for wearable electronics. Bob also took the opportunity to visit his old colleagues and friends at Stanford University and share some old memories and new research findings.
March/April 2023: Harsh presented his work on bismuth based coordination complexes at the ACS Spring Meeting in Indianapolis, as well as at the RSC Faraday joint interest group conference in Sheffield.
March 2023: Ana presented her work at the 19th European Molecular Imaging Meeting in Salzburg, not only enjoying the latest science in the field, but also the Alpine landscape.
February 2023: Adibah attended the 2nd International Symposium on Advanced Functional Materials (ISAFM) in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) to present her work on NIR-absorbing organic semiconductors and was awarded the runner-up award for best oral presentation in the Advanced Materials category. Congratulations Adibah!
February 2023: Adibah, Aisha, Barnabas, Megan, Pete and Ryan delivered a day of slime making at St Gabriel’s CofE Primary School as part of the schools STEM week. 200 children made two different types of slime and compared the properties of the slime for observations.
January 2023: Megan was nominated by UCL to attend the Global Young Scientists Summit 2023 in Singapore, a get together of bright young researchers and Nobel laureates from around the world to discuss current science and technology trends. Well deserved Megan!
December 2022: What better way to conclude a busy year than with a delicious curry?
December 2022: It is that time of year again, where Aisha gets all inspired to bake and she went above and beyond this year with personalised edible art-work. YUM!
November 2022: Megan and Ryan attended the 2022 MRS Fall Meeting to present their research on self-healing organic semiconductors and the application of conducting polymers to regenerative medicine.
November 2022: Ana presented her recent work on organic semiconductor contrast agents at the RSC Materials Chemistry poster symposium in London.
November 2022: This was a huge month for PhD upgrade vivas in the group! Jessie, Ana and Aisha all succesfully passed their vivas and upgraded to PhD degrees. Many congratulations!
October 2022: Beth, Rikin, Naim, Alberto and Barnabas are joining the group for their MSci/MSc research projects. Welcome to the team!
September 2022: Many congratulations to Jessie, who has been awarded the Tufnell fellowship; a departmental prize awarded to the best graduate student progressing to the Research School.
August 2022: Alberto secured a RSC Undergraduate Research Bursary and joined us for two months to work on “Bioinspired self-healing conjugated polymers for skin wearable electronics”.
August 2022: We had to say good-bye to Benjamin (left) who was visiting us for three months from the University of Mons (France) to work on the synthesis of self-healing conjugated polymers. Thanks for all your hard work and we wish you all the best for your upcoming internship in industry.
July 2022: Michael and Emily joined the lab for a month to experience cutting-edge research first-hand, kindly supported by the UCL MAPS Summer Research Internship programme.
July 2022: Many congratulations to Megan for winning the Elsevier Poster Prize at the ICSM2022 in Glasgow.
July 2022: Jaume presented his work on self-doping organic semiconductors at this year’s PGT poster event at UCL.
July 2022: Taking advantage of the sunny weather, it was time for a new group picture!
June 2022: After a two-year break, the in-person PhD talks were back at UCL and Zach did a brilliant job presenting his work on self-assembled organic semiconductors.
June 2022: Ryan presented his work at the Tissue and Cell Engineering Society Conference in Birmingham this week and won a poster prize. Congratulations Ryan!
June 2022: Megan presented her work on self-healing conjugated polymers at the Bordeaux Polymer Conference 2022. Well done!
June 2022: Ryan presented his work on bioelectronic scaffolds for nerve regeneration at the NIHR Bioengineering – Healthcare Technologies Awards at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and his poster won 2nd place. Congratulations!
June 2022: Luke, Sara and Niamh presented their MSci research at the SARPIC talks at UCL Chemistry. Thank you all for your hard work and you will be missed in the group!
May 2022: Lewis’ paper on self-dopant NDI derivates got accepted in J. Mat. Chem. C. Great job on getting this work published after many months of hard work and at times confusing results.
May 2022: Aisha and Bob took part in the Guiding Lights event at King’s College London celebrating the International Day of Light 2022. Aisha took up the opportunity to represent her PhD research in a more artistic way than Chemdraw.
May 2022: Adibah passed her upgrade viva and is now only one viva away from her PhD 🙂 Well done!
March 2022: Pete, Aisha, Zach, Megan, Harsh and Jessie visited West Byfleet School during the school’s science week to conduct slime-making workshops for 360 school children. During the sessions, the children were taught about the science behind slime making and of course had a go at making their own.
March 2022: After the Covid break, in-person graduations are back! Congratulations to Aisha, Jessie, Ana and Megan for their MSci degrees.
March 2022: Megan and Ryan passed their PhD upgrade vivas with flying colours. Well done you two!
February 2022: Congratulations to Adibah for passing her first year PhD viva!
December 2021: Lewis presented his work on self-dopant organic semiconductors at the Boston MRS Fall Meeting.
December 2021: With the holidays approaching, Aisha made sure we all got into the spirit with some tasty treats. Yes, these are chemistry-themed biscuits!!!
October 2021: We are happy to welcome Niamh, Sara, Luke and Jaume to the group to conduct their Master research projects. They will be looking at different aspects of how we can integrate organic semiconductors with biological systems.
September 2021: Aisha and Jessie rejoined the group to start their PhD research! Aisha is co-supervised with Dr Rebecca Ingle and will be looking into the effects of chirality in organic semiconductors on the material’s spin dynamics. During her MSci project, Jessie studied self-healing materials via DFT and will now investigate the problem using synthetic chemistry, particularly focussing on coordination chemistry.
August 2021: Our research with the Al-Hashimi group into the synthesis of conjugated polymers via nucleophilic aromatic substitution was accepted for publication in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.
July 2021: Welcome to Dr Peter Finn, who joined the group for his postdoctoral work on self-healing organic semiconductors.
July 2021: Our work on non-ionic interlayers for organic and perovskite solar cells has been published in Chemistry of Materials. Great job Saumya!
June 2021: Congratulations to Jessie, Toby, Rizwan, Israq and Andras for their successful MSci completion and many thanks for all the hard work on their projects. We wish them all the best in their future endeavours!
April 2021: Charles Chen (co-supervised with Prof Palgrave) started his MSc work in the lab to develop new lead-free halometallates.
March 2021: Dr Harsh Bhatia joined the group for his postdoctoral research funded by Innovate UK. Harsh is jointly supervised with Prof Palgrave and will study new hybrid photovoltaic absorber materials.
March 2021: A big welcome to Adibah Zamhuri, who is joining the group for her PhD studies, supported by a MyBrainSc scholarship from the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education. Adibah will be working on the synthesis of organic photoacoustic nanoparticles through emulsion polymerisation.
February 2021: Congratulations to Zach for passing his PhD upgrade viva! Only one examination to go 😉
November 2020: Lewis successfully defended his PhD thesis. Many congratulations Dr Cowen!
October 2020: Jessie, Toby, Rizwan, Israq and Andras are joining the group for their MSci projects studying doping, photo-acoustics and self-healing in organic semiconductors.
October 2020: We welcome back two familiar faces to the group, Megan who will be starting her PhD, and Ana, who will be doing her rotation in the group as part of her LIDo PhD program.
September 2020: Many congratulations to Zilu Liu for passing her PhD viva. Thank you for all the hard work Zilu and we wish you all the best for your future adventures!
August 2020: After eight exciting weeks, Aisha’s summer internship came to an end. She not only studied the supramolecular interactions in organic semiconductors but also showcased her creative side with a chemical inspired henna.
July 2020: Congratulations to Zach for successfully passing his first year PhD viva!
June 2020: Many congratulations to Megan for winning this year’s final year project (SARPIC) students’ choice award in her session “functional polymers and active sensing”.
June 2020: We are glad to welcome Ryan back to the group to conduct his PhD research focusing on the design of biocompatible organic semiconductors for nerve regeneration, co-supervised by Dr James Phillips and Prof. Alethea Tabor.
June 2020: Zilu’s work on how to control the thermoelectric properties of organo-metallic coordination polymers was published in Advanced Functional Materials.
May 2020: Congratulations to Lewis on getting his collaborative work with the Gu and Chiu research groups published in Advanced Functional Materials.
March 2020: Big congratulations to Yasmin for passing her MPhil to PhD upgrade viva!
February 2020: Yasmin spent a month in Prof Yutaka Majima’s lab at Tokyo Tech to learn more about the fabrication of single-molecule transistors.
February 2020: Oliver visited the lab for a day as part of his career progression development (CPD) to shadow Zach and see first-hand how a research laboratory operates.
February 2020: Bob was visiting Prof Yu-Cheng Chiu at NTSUT and Prof Ho-Hsiu at NTHU. Thanks for the wonderful hospitality and for sharing your exciting science!
January 2020: Congratulations to Lewis on his work on polymorphism in naphthalene diimide based semiconductors, published in J. Mat. Chem. C.
December 2019: After an intense and very successful year it was time to wind down for the group over Christmas dinner!
Schroeder Research Group 