Vacancies

We are currently recruiting two fully-funded PhD students to start in October 2025, or soon thereafter. More details about the studentships can be found below and on findaphd.com. You are strongly encouraged to contact Robbie (robert.oliver@sheffield.ac.uk) before applying for the positions.

For each of these studentships, students with a good first degree (at least 2.i or equivalent) in physics, chemistry, materials science or a related subject would be ideally suited. 

Project 1: Unlocking Next-Generation Solar Cells: Integrating Novel Non-Fullerene Acceptors with Metal Halide Perovskites (Home students only)

Summary: Metal halide perovskites are highly versatile with ‘tuneable bandgaps’, and so can be combined into ‘triple-junction’ photovoltaics, which promise efficiencies almost double a single silicon cell. In this approach, three semiconductors that absorb different colours of light are coupled to harvest more solar energy with vastly reduced losses. However, the bottleneck is the wide bandgap component of the triple-junction which absorbs the high energy blue light. The reasons for its poor performance are not fully understood, but recent work has identified energy-transfer between the perovskite absorber and the organic charge-transport layers as a crucial issue.  

In this project, we will study the energy-transfer process between 2.0 eV metal halide perovskites and newly synthesised organic charge-transport layers from a world-leading synthetic chemist, (Prof. Iain McCulloch FRS, Oxford). We target non-fullerene acceptors that have enabled breakthrough efficiencies in organic photovoltaics, yet similar breakthroughs are yet to be achieved in metal halide perovskite photovoltaics. You will understand newly synthesised non-fullerene acceptors using cutting-edge spectroscopy and implement optimised materials into metal halide perovskite solar cells with enhanced performance. This project has the potential to contribute to creating solar cells that are not only more efficient but also cost-effective, driving us to a sustainable energy future.  Full details are available here.

I get a lot of emails from interested students about joining the group which is great. But in light of this, it is important for you to write emails that make you stand out to maximise your chances of success. 

In your email:

Keep the information relevant and specific - explain why are you interested in this project that we are advertising. Wanting to do a PhD in renewable energy is not enough, I want to know exactly what interests you in this particular project, this needs to be specific to the science we are aiming to do. This is the best way to make yourself stand out.

Avoid ChatGPT (or similar) - Generative AI tools can make your writing bland and very similar to many other applicants which means you do not stand out. I’d rather your English was less polished than I receive an email with lots of words but no substance.

There are currently no open positions for postdoctoral researchers. However, we are always delighted to hear from researchers who hold their own funding or would like to apply for a fellowship to be hosted in the group. Please contact Robbie to discuss this in detail.

We work closely with the New and Emerging Semiconductors Group in Sheffield Physics. I encourage you to look for open positions in their group as well.