Research directions

Energy

The laboratory is dedicated to the development of a new generation of materials for solar energy conversion, including advanced photocatalytic and plasmonic materials and solar cells. The goal is to find efficient technologies for obtaining green hydrogen and converting CO2 into chemicals with high added value. The laboratory also develops low-dimensional and functionalized materials for applications in the field of supercapacitors and new types of ion batteries.

Selected publication outputs Tantis et. al. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2023, Rej et al. Nano Energy 2023, Henrotte et al. ACS Nano 2023, Zdražil et al. Small 2023, Zhao et al. ACS Catal. 2023, Šedajová et al. Energy Environ. Sci. 2022, Obraztsov et al. Adv. Energy Mater. 2022, Jayaramulu et al. Adv. Mater. 2021, Mascaretti et al. Nano Energy 2021, Tantis et al. Adv. Funct Mater. 2021.

Catalysis

The research is focused on the development of new types of heterogeneous catalysts, electrocatalysts and photocatalysts using the approaches of nanomaterial chemistry, deposition techniques, atomic engineering and defect engineering for a wide range of applications including organic synthesis, biowaste removal, CO2 conversion and removal or the production of amino compounds. Special attention is paid to the design and development of single-atom catalysts with control over the concentration, electronic properties and coordination environment of metal atoms anchored on 2D materials.

Selected publication outputs Poulose et al. Nature Nanotech. 2023, Poulose et al. Nature Commun. 2023, Jayaramulu et al. Chem. Rev. 2022, Chandrashekhar et al. Nature Catal. 2022, Poulose et al. Nature Nanotechnology 2022, Singh et al. Chem. Rev. 2021, Sharma et al. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2021, Zhou et al. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2021, Saini et al. ACS Nano 2021, Majumder et al. ACS Nano 2021, Zuo et al. ACS Nano 2021.

Biomedicine and environmental technology

Part of the research of the Materials Environmental Laboratory is research into carbon materials with distinct photoluminescent and electrochemical properties (carbon dots, graphene derivatives) and some metal-based nanomaterials for use in medical diagnostics or therapy. The laboratory is also dedicated to the design and development of advanced materials for the detection and effective removal of pollutants from water and air.

Selected publication outputs Xie et al. Angewandte Chem. 2023, Flauzino et al. Small 2023, Malina et al. Carbon 2023, Yang et al. Green Chem. 2023, Zdražil et al. Adv. Opt. Mater. 2023, Panáček et al. Small 2022, Saini et al. J. Mater. Chem. A 2022, Panáček et al. Adv. Sci. 2021, Kolařík et al. ACS Nano 2021, Kalytchuk et al. ACS Nano 2021.