The SPECS vision is to use low-cost, highly scalable, durable polymer (plastic) materials for energy conversion and storage technologies to help achieve the renewable energy goals of the U.S. by 2050.
SPECS’ mission is to understand the factors controlling charge and matter transport processes that underpin emerging energy conversion (i.e. catalysis) and energy storage technologies at conductive polymer/electrolyte interfaces across spatiotemporal scales to guide durable soft material development and optimization.
U.S. Department of Energy award DE-SC0023411
Why conducting polymer (plastic) materials?
Pi-conjugated polymers are low cost, easily scalable and printable semiconductors that can absorb light, transport fundamental charges of electricity (holes and electrons) and store energy or enable energy storage through the formation of fuels such as hydrogen (H2). Such materials provide control over local environments afforded through synthesis, long-lived charge carrier lifetimes, and flexible, low-cost, and scalable thin film formats which circumvent the shortcomings of inorganic materials (surface states, grain boundaries, challenges in processing, and mechanically unstable platforms).
SPECS research effort is divided into three synergistic thrusts that span fundamental aspects of (photo)electrochemical applications. Insights learned in one thrust readily inform the other two. This approach ensures that the major outcome of SPECS will be a cohesive and holistic understanding of the dynamic interfaces that exist throughout π-conjugated polymer/electrolyte systems, with direct applications to energy storage and molecular fuels generation.
The SPECS team is diverse and inclusive, and spans a wide range of scientific disciplines, from some of the top research universities and national labs in the U.S., including: The University of Arizona, the National Renewable Energy Labs (NREL), University of Colorado Boulder, Georgia Institute of Technology, Emory University, The University of Kentucky, Purdue University, and Stanford University.
Find out more about each thrust on their respective pages below.
