ECSE Research Seminar on Wednesday, 18th May 2005

Speaker: Dr. Rachel A. Caruso, PFPC, School of Chemistry, The University of Melbourne, 3010 Australia.

Abstract:

The ability to control the morphology of materials is highly desirable as structure plays an important role in the final properties of the material and hence its areas of application and performance efficiency. Template synthesis has shown how the outer morphology and inner porosity of materials can be tailored. This presentation will describe the use of organic templates for the formation of inorganic materials that contain porous inner structures. One such material, titanium dioxide can be used in the dye-sensitized solar cell, which originates from Professor Michael Grätzel’s laboratories at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (A low-cost, high efficiency solar cell based on dye-sensitized colloidal TiO2 films B. O’Regan and M. Grätzel Nature 353, 737-740 (1991)). The working mechanism of this cell, which relies on crystal sizes in the nanoregime, will be discussed along with current attempts to further enhance the efficiency of the cell using the template synthesis technique. This work is being conducted in conjunction with the Nanocrystalline Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Group at Monash University

About the speaker:

Dr Rachel A. Caruso

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE,

The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, ARC AUSTRALIAN RESEARCH FELLOW, August 2003 - current

The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, INAUGURAL CENTENARY RESEARCH FELLOW, Jan. 2003 - July 2003

Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Golm-Potsdam, Germany, GROUP LEADER, 1999 - 2002

Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Golm-Potsdam, Germany, POSTDOCTORAL FELLOW, 1998 - 1999

Hahn Meitner Institute, Berlin, Germany, POSTDOCTORAL FELLOW, 1997 - 1998

The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY, 1993 - 1997

The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, 1988 - 1992, B. SCI. (HONOURS) FACULTY HONOUR SCORE – H1

CURRENT RESEARCH

Interests

Fabrication of porous inorganic structures using various templating procedures and numerous organic templates. This can involve the formation of the initial template, the incorporation of the inorganic material or a precursor to which reactions are carried out leading to the required material. The template is then removed in such a way that the final inorganic product retains porosity and structure. The numerous areas of application for the final materials range from solar energy conversion, catalysis, photocatalysis, to biosensing.

Research has lead to 40 peer reviewed publications in highly ranked international journals, 2 patents, and well over 40 conference or seminar presentations.

RECENT FUNDINGS

DISCOVERY PROJECT, AUSTRALIAN RESEARCH COUNCIL (2003-2007) $685 000 (SINGLE CI)

UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE/CSIRO COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH GRANT, (2005-2006) $42 000

MINOR/MEDIUM EQUIPMENT BID (SCIENCE FACULTY, THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE) FOR MICROMERITICS TRISTAR GAS SORPTION ANALYZER (2004) $98 000

DVC (RESEARCH) DEPARTMENT EQUIPMENT FUND (THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE) FOR THERMOGRAVIMETRIC ANALYZER (2004) $98 000

MELBOURNE RESEARCH GRANT SCHEME, THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE (2003) $25 000