Throughout the natural world, solar energy is utilized to generate energy by converting food and water into the building blocks of life. We aim to use solar energy to facilitate chemical reactions that could be used to generate fine chemicals and fuel sources from pervasive small molecules, like water and carbon dioxide. If we could perform these reactions at large scale, then we could make energy generation much more mobile and deployable in the field. 

Organic materials lend our lives many conveniences, through wood and paper products, plastics, and even displays for TVs and tablets. In this line of research, organic materials will be designed and synthesized that self-assemble from solution into solids with useful properties such as charge conduction, selective sensing, or electricity generation.

In the future, society will need to harvest energy from a variety of sources, and not just the forces of the sun, wind, or hydropower. Vibration, temperature, and motion can also be used to generate power with materials that turn these impulses into electricity. In this line of research, novel ferroelectric and flexoelectric hybrid materials will be developed for sensing, electricity generation, light emission, and more.