Newcastle University EPSRC Core Equipment Award 2022

We are requesting funding to purchase a range of equipment that will support a wide range of research, but with a particular focus on equipment supporting energy materials research which is conducted by cross disciplinary working across three of the four schools in our Faculty of Science Agriculture and Engineering. We have also requested funding from the "Additional Funding" which will improve the environmental and financial sustainability of some of our facilities, along with a wider range of equipment that may be funded through the "Unmet Demand" funding stream if approved.

The equipment requested as part of the basic award is; UV-Vis-NIR Spectrophotometer Fluorescence/ photoluminescence Spectrophotometer FTIR Spectrophotometer Particle Analyser Microbalance

The equipment requested will maximize use by multiple users in areas in which our research is expanding and where we have made a number of ECR appointments through our flagship NUAcT Fellowship scheme (www.ncl.ac.uk/nuact/about-nuact/) and are supported by UKRI-funded Future Leader Fellows.

Equipment supporting our energy materials research is central to major strands of research driven by our multidisciplinary Centre for Energy (https://www.ncl.ac.uk/energy/) and builds on the establishment of the EPSRC-funded North East Centre for Energy Materials (NECEM; https://research.ncl.ac.uk/necem/). The equipment will complement and expand the capabilities of a recently EPSRC-funded North East Ultrafast Transient Absorption Spectroscopy (UTAS) Facility which brings together researchers from Newcastle, Northumbria and Durham Universities, expanding the opportunities for maximizing use, access by multiple users, including across institutions, promoting collaboration.

Focus on equipment to support energy materials research has added benefit by virtue of our central role in the Renewable Energy North East Universities (ReNU) CDT (https://research.ncl.ac.uk/necem/studentships/; https://renu.northumbria.ac.uk/) and like the North East UTAS facility brings a broader regional dimensions by supporting PGRs from the ReNU partner institutions of Newcastle, Northumbria and Durham Universities (Core Equipment in support of Doctoral Training).

Expanding research into energy materials for next generation solar cells and photocatalysis has increased demand from our chemists and physicists for characterisation of materials with optical spectroscopy and physical characterization materials for photo- and other catalytic applications. This encompasses applied research conducted in close collaboration with industry partners through to fundamental studies of novel photoelectrochemically active molecules.

Building on this growing research strength we have therefore requested funding for a suite of instruments that service the needs of researchers in this field an beyond, namely a UV-Vis-NIR spectrophotometer, a Fluorescence spectrophotometer, an FT-IR spectrophotometer, a particle analyzer and a microbalance for dedicated use in the UTAS facility which will host the equipment. These instruments will enable us to characterise new materials and identify bottlenecks in the energy conversion processes essential to making solar technology, materials in the energy conversion processes essential to making solar technology, materials for energy applications, optoelectronic devices and circuits, photonic materials and metamaterials more productive.

Advances in these application domains have the potential to transform the efficiency and cost of renewable energy generation, addressing decarbonization and the "Clean Growth" Grand Challenge.