Research

Soft materials,
hard problems.

My research explores how we design and understand soft, functional materials for devices that interact with the human body and the environment. I focus on nanomaterials for bioelectronic interfaces and organic photovoltaic devices, and use advanced microscopy to connect nanoscale structure with device performance.

Organic Photovoltaics

Donor–acceptor nanoparticles, blend morphology, and charge separation to push OPV efficiency and operational stability.

Bioelectronics

Soft, low-voltage nanomaterials interfacing with neural tissue — including artificial retina and neural-interface devices.

Microscopy & Imaging

Cryo-TEM, STEM-EDX, and synchrotron X-ray microscopy to connect nanoscale structure to device behaviour.

Organic Photovoltaics

I investigate donor–acceptor nanoparticles and how their blend morphology controls charge separation and energy transfer in organic photovoltaic devices. The questions I care about sit at the interface between processing (particle size, solvent choice, deposition) and physics (interface quality, recombination pathways, charge mobility). Most days you'll find me tuning a formulation, running an optoelectronic measurement, or staring at a TEM micrograph trying to reconcile a current–voltage curve with what the morphology says.

Open questions

▸How does nanoparticle morphology change when processed from water versus organic solvents?
▸What role does crystallinity at donor–acceptor interfaces play in charge transport and recombination?
▸Which processing knobs translate most directly to device-level efficiency gains?

Bioelectronics

On the bioelectronics side, I work with soft, low-voltage nanomaterials that can interface gently with neural tissue. The constraints are unusual: you need devices that respect the mechanical and biological environment of cells, that operate at safe voltages, and that survive in vivo for useful durations. Current work focuses on materials and device architectures relevant to artificial-retina interfaces, with an emphasis on biocompatibility and long-term performance.

Open questions

▸Can symmetry and patterning at the material or device level influence how cells interact with bioelectronic interfaces?
▸What soft-material designs reconcile the mechanical mismatch between rigid electronics and living tissue?
▸How do we characterise long-term interfacial degradation without disturbing the system?

Microscopy & Imaging

The thread that ties the photovoltaic and bioelectronic work together is structural characterisation. I rely on Cryo-TEM, STEM-EDX, and synchrotron X-ray microscopy to visualise morphology, composition, and interfaces at the nanoscale — and then to map those features onto optical and electrical behaviour. The point isn't pretty pictures: it's that structure-function correlations are usually where the actionable engineering levers live.

Open questions

▸Which imaging modality best resolves the structural features that matter for a given device behaviour?
▸How do we account for beam damage and sample preparation artefacts in soft-material imaging?
▸Can correlative microscopy — same sample, multiple modalities — collapse interpretive ambiguity?

Methods

Techniques in the toolkit

The recurring instruments and approaches that show up across themes — from sample preparation to characterisation to fitting.

Cryo-TEMSTEM-EDXSynchrotron X-ray microscopyOptoelectronic measurementsBlend morphology tuning

Publications

Soft materials,hard problems.

Organic Photovoltaics

Bioelectronics

Microscopy & Imaging

Organic Photovoltaics

Bioelectronics

Microscopy & Imaging

Techniques in the toolkit

Recent papers

Soft materials,
hard problems.