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Understanding and controlling the growth of mesocrystalline for novel photoactive materials. This project aims to design new functional materials by directing the assembly of light harvesting quantum dots and n-type oxide materials to produce novel photoactive materials. Surface spectroscopic techniques will be used to investigate the interaction of bifunctional ligands with oxide and sulphide/selenide materials. Molecules which are found to bind strongly between these two types of materials will then be used as linkers to build up materials composed of regular arrays of nanocrystal materials. It is envisaged that the correct choice of ligands will allow self assembled arrays to be grown with efficient charge transfer between the quantum dot and oxide nanoparticles, producing materials with potential applications in solar energy and photocatalysis. ________________________________

This is a PhD research project in mechanical engineering, more specifically in floating offshore wind turbine aerodynamics. The impact on the aerodynamic performance of the rotor as the platform moves in the wind direction will be investigated using computational fluid dynamics. The scenarios considered will be those with platform motion high enough to enter the turbine into propeller state and vortex ring state, two events that can lead to a significant reduction in the turbine's performance as a result of the turbine interacting with its own wake.

Sustainable energy production is a critical challenge faced by mankind currently and one that will persist in the coming decades. Production of electricity from sunlight is a key technology in the global search for a solution to this problem. Current photovoltaic technologies, especially silicon-based photovoltaics, are widely deployed, however concerns remain over the ability of solar to compete with traditional electricity generation in a truly free market. To this end, secondary and tertiary photovoltaic technologies at the forefront of research are focused on low-cost production methods while at the same time reaching and maintaining the high efficiencies currently on the market. One current exciting approach taken by research is that of quantum dot photovoltaics. By creating nanoparticles out of semiconductor materials, quantum effects cause the band gap to increase and shift relative to their position in the bulk material. This can be harnessed to convert a larger proportion of sunlight into electricity, and to expand the catalog of suitable photovoltaic materials. Quantum dots can be made at low cost, and their small size allows them to be used in printing technologies for low cost, large area device processing. Of paramount importance to this technology is the separation of these quantum dot nanoparticles, aggregation in close proximity causes the particles to interact in such a way as to destroy their quantum properties. To prevent this, large organic ligands are attached to the quantum dots during their synthesis. These large organic ligands are then exchanged for smaller ones during device production, and different ligands can affect the position and size of the band gaps in quantum dots. Currently, the ligands used to ensure a uniform dispersion of the quantum dots do not contribute to the performance of the photovoltaic device beyond separating the quantum dots and modifying their band gaps. In fact, we believe that the insulating layer of ligands hinders the movement of charges within the device by providing large barriers to electron tunneling between the dots, preventing the charge from leaving the device and reducing efficiency. This research aims to improve device efficiency by using ligands that provide a smaller barrier to electron tunneling. We aim to use ligands with conjugated double bonds commonly seen in plastic electronics and organic photovoltaics. This should make it easier for electrons to tunnel out of the dots, improving charge transport within the device and subsequently its efficiency. EPSRC's research area is Energy

One of the major current scientific and technological challenges concerns the conversion of carbon dioxide to fuels and useful products in effective and economically viable manner. This proposal responds to the major challenge of developing low energy routes to convert carbon dioxide to fuels and useful chemicals. The project has the following four main strands: (i) The use of electricity generated by renewable technologies to reduce CO2 electrocatalytically, where we will develop new approaches involving the use of ionic liquid solvents to activate the CO2 (ii) The use of hydrogen in the catalytic reduction of CO2, where we will apply computational procedures to predict new materials for this key catalytic process and subsequently test them experimentally (iii) The development of new materials for use in the efficient solar generation of hydrogen which will provide the reductant for the catalytic CO2 reduction (iv) A detailed life cycle analysis which will assess the extent to which the new technology achieves the overall objective of developing low carbon fuels. Our approach aims, therefore, to exploit renewably generated energy directly via the electrocatalytic route or indirectly via the solar generated hydrogen in CO2 utilisation for the formation of fuels and/or chemicals. The different components of the approach will be fully integrated to achieve coherent, new low energy technologies for this key process, while the rigorous life-cycle analysis will ensure that it satisfies the need for a low energy technology.

This project fits squarely within the EPSRC's Energy theme (Solar Technologies and Materials for Energy Applications) and is overlapping with the Physical Science and manufacturing the future themes. This project will focus on the development of transparent electrodes based on nano-structured ultra-thin metal films, matched to the needs of the emerging generation of organic and perovskite photovoltaics. The project will focus particularly on chemical approaches to stabilizing these electrodes towards oxidation in air and the development of new chemical approaches to achieving large area patterning of these electrodes. The project will span electrode fabrication and characterisation (including optical modelling), as well as photovoltaic device fabrication and characterisation, and so represents a truly inter-disciplinary research training opportunity.

Photovoltaic (PV) devices convert sunlight directly into electricity and form an increasingly important part of the global renewable energy landscape. Today's PVs are based on conventional semiconductors which are energy-intensive to produce and restricted to rigid flat plate designs. The next generation of PVs will be based on very thin films of semiconductors that can be processed from solution at low temperature, which opens the door to exceptionally low cost manufacturing processes and new application areas not available to today's rigid flat plate PVs, particularly in the areas of transportation and buildings integration. The emerging generation of thin film PVs also offer exceptional carbon dioxide mitigation potential because they are expected to return the energy used in their fabrication within weeks of installation. However, this potential can only be achieved if the electrode that allows light into these devices is low cost and flexible, and at present no electrode technology meets both the cost constraint and technical specifications needed. This proposal seeks to address this complex and inherently interdisciplinary challenge using three new and distinct approaches based on the use of nano-structured films of metal less than 100 metal atoms in thickness. The first approach focuses on the development of a low cost, large area method for the fabrication of metal film electrodes with a dense array of holes through which light can pass unhindered. The second approach seeks to determine design rules for a new type of 'light-catching' electrode that interacts strongly with the incoming light, trapping and concentrating it at the interface with the semiconductor layer inside the device responsible for converting the light into electricity. The final approach is based on combining ultra-thin metal films with ultra-thin films of transparent semiconductor materials to achieve double layer electrodes with exceptional properties resulting from spontaneous intermixing of the two thin solid films. The UK is a global leader in the development of next generation PVs with a growing number of companies now focused on bringing them to market, and so the outputs of the proposed programme of research has strong potential to directly increase the economic competitiveness of the UK in this young sector and would help to address the now time critical challenge of climate change due to global warming.

The primary aim of the project is to quantify the influence of small-scale hydropower facilities on the movement and survival of freshwater fish of high economic and conservation concern. A secondary aim is to develop recommendations for potential mitigation options to protect fish at small-scale hydropower sites should negative effects be identified. Telemetry techniques will be used in the field to quantify the probability of passage through the turbines and associated injury rates and mortality of adult and juvenile life-stages using a combination of telemetry techniques. Second order effects, including delay and avoidance behaviour exhibited in response to acoustic and hydrodynamic conditions encountered at the hydropower facilities, will be assessed. Fine-scale controlled experiments will be conducted to further quantify fish response to acoustic and hydrodynamic conditions replicated.

I. The Pile Soil Analysis (PISA) project The Pile Soil Analysis project is a joint industry initiative which is run by the Carbon Trust's Offshore Wind Accelerator program. The aim of PISA is to investigate and develop 'improved design methods for laterally loaded piles, specifically tailored to the offshore wind sector' (University of Oxford, n.d.). Currently monopiles used in offshore winds applications are designed following the guidance found in (API, 2010) and (DNV, 2014), which were written many decades ago for use in the oil and gas industry, where piles are long and slender and do not experience large lateral loads. The issue is that piles designed for offshore wind applications have much larger diameters and are significantly shorter as they need to resist larger lateral loads, resulting in an overly conservative pile being built with the soil response being altered from what was expected. The PISA project has carried out 'large scale field tests' onshore to gather data (Byrne, et al., 2015). The locations were chosen such that the soil was similar to that found in the North Sea. In order to validate the results of the field tests, computational analyses were carried out at Imperial College London (Zdravkovic, et al., 2015). The design methodology report is to be handed over to industry at the start of 2016. In order to gain a better understanding of soil response with respect to laterally loaded piles further computational modelling is required. Other areas which may be looked at include foundation response: - depending on the wider parameter space - in layered soils, made up of both clay and sand -under varied loading. The modelling will be carried out either using Imperial College Finite Element Program (ICFEP) or another commercial software e.g. AbaqusFEA. The soil will be modelled as a 'constitutive soil' similar to the method carried out by Zdravkovic, et al. (2015). II. Continuous real time heath structural monitoring The majority of the turbines that have been built have a basic data collection system in the rotor assembly called the Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA). This data includes a range of different variables ranging from wind speed to oil temperature (Antoniadou, et al., 2015). The data also includes acceleration of the turbine from which it is possible to calculate the fundamental frequency of the structure. A recent study carried out in the Duddon Sand Offshore Wind Farm has found that there is a significant difference between the designed and the actual fundamental frequency for the wind turbines. The consequence of underestimating the fundamental frequency is that this allows for the possibility of increasing the operational lifetime of the structure. Another study looking at a single wind turbine in the Walney Offshore Wind Farm showed the potential increase in the operational lifetime of the structure to be 88% (Kallehave, et al., 2015) In order to further improve the optimization of wind turbines and allow monopoles to be used in locations with greater confidence the following areas will require further research: - Improve design with the use of measurements - where the design process is refined using data that is gathered. In addition to looking at the data that is gathered with the SCADA, other data collection techniques should be utilised. - More accurate modelling of the soil-structure interaction - this is related to the PISA project see above. - Improved understanding of overall structural damping in the turbine - overall structural damping is the total damping minus the aerodynamic damping. Currently there is difficulty in accurately determining the individual damping contributions to the overall damping, especially during operation (Kallehave, et al., 2015). The research falls within the EPSRC Energy theme and is sponsored by Mott MacDonald.

As railways are increasingly electrified, service levels depend on an increase in life and reliability of overhead electric power supplies beyond the performance of current materials and technology. Overhead power lines are highly stressed structures without redundancy. Their failure in service is caused by a combination of wear, fatigue cracking, and corrosion, and can be strongly influenced by geometry (e.g. gradient at approach to tunnels). Current collection quality is determined by material behaviour under combined cable tension, the frequency of cable supports, dynamic load from current collection pantographs, and environmental loading (e.g. side winds). Completion of the project will lend itself to the ongoing commitment by Network Rail to improve the reliability and lowering of the cost in maintaining the existing overhead line equipment. Integration of the research with Network Rail's aims provides a route through which results can be implemented. Aims and objectives: To establish how novel line materials, components and geometries may offer improved dynamics at reduced cost relative to current systems. This will be achieved through developing an existing finite element model to incorporate the existence of limited clearance cases such as overbridges and level crossings. The research will identify areas of high force on the overhead line equipment through the use of the developed model, enabling investigation of how forces can be reduced or managed, and be used to predict areas that would be prone to failure in the future over an range of conditions. Novelty of the research methodology: The research will consider materials, components and installation geometries which have not yet been applied in overhead line installations. Research will focus on developing current model of overhead lines to incorporate gradients to predict dynamic loads in areas of the rail network such as over/underbridges and level crossings. Fluid models will also be developed to work with the overhead line model to determine the loads and effects of side winds (e.g. the effect known as galloping wires). Alignment to EPSRC's strategies and research areas: The research is aligned with the sustainability agenda in producing longer life infrastructure. Environmental change is considered through the effect of increased wind forces on structures. Materials engineering (metals and alloys) is a key factor in selecting novel materials for use in this industrial application. Moreover, the research is aligned well with EPSRC's areas of engineering design, in the sense that we will seek to optimise the design of future overhead lines. With side winds included in the model, this will also align with EPSRC's research areas of fluid dynamics and aerodynamics. Any companies or collaborators involved: Network Rail - access to data, field test/measurement sites, and key engineering expertise Furrer+Frey - co-financing the research, access to data, and key engineering expertise