DrFilip Podjaski

Filip Podjaski joined the Durrant Group, Department of Chemistry as UKRI Research Fellow (via Horizon Europe Marie-Sklodowska-Curie fellowship) in August 2022. He investigates light-driven and ionic processes in organic based semiconductors - for novel photobattery technologies and for enhanced solar hydrogen production in natural environments - mainly by time-resolved optical spectroscopy techniques.

Beforehand, he worked in the Nanochemistry department, Max-Planck Institute for Solid State Research (MPI-FKF), Germany for many years. After his joint PhD at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) at MPI-FKF, he continued his career as postdoc and group leader, focussing on emerging photocharging materials and related concepts, carbon nitrides for photocatalysis, and inorganic electrocatalysts for water splitting.

Being a physicist by formation (University of Göttingen, Germany and Lyon, France), Filip's research interests are very interdisciplinary and bridge fundamental (photo-)physical understanding with chemical energy conversion functions. Studying environmental influences on materials’ performance, and modifications to tailor these interactions, Filip aims to contribute to adapted and efficient solutions for our renewable energy conversion and storage infrastructure.

Current and past research topics include:

(i) Photocatalytic hydrogen production from water by suspended nano-and microparticles

(ii) Photocharging materials (intrinsically combining the function of a batter and solar cell) for new applications in fuel and especially electricity supply on demand (in the dark), as well as for sensing, (memristive) information storage and its processing.

(iii) (Photo-)Electrocatalyst development and characterization for hydrogen and oxygen evolution from water, as well as CO2 reduction

(iv - past) Light-driven microswimmers for biomedical applications including smart drug delivery and responsive functions, making use of porous organic semiconductor materials, photocatalysis and photocharging.

Filip has discovered the photo-ionic mechanisms enabling photocharging in organic materials, enabling the realization of organic solar batteries and single-material based photo-memristive sensing, for which he shares patents. In 2024, Filip organized the 1st international symposium on Photocharging materials and light-driven ionics (https://www.european-mrs.com/photocharging-materials-light-driven-ionics-and-their-applications-energy-conversion-storage-emrs).

His research on strain engineered electrocatalysts enabled fundamentally new approaches for enhancing the surface catalytic process limiting hydrogen evolution in acidic media - a topic he continues exploring with external collaborators.

His work on multifunctional light-driven microswimmers enabled photocharging of micromachines (30s light charging -> 30min subsequent propulsion in dark), the unprecedented use of porous organic materials in natural and biological (i.e. salt containing) environments, and exemplified striking performance for targeted drug sorption and delivery applications in porous, organic based micromaterials.

Filip was also involved in the med-tech project endosurge, hosted at MPI for Intelligent Systems (Stuttgart, Germany), which he accompanied as entrepreneur through the Max-Planck Innovation incubator Max!mize (https://www.maximize-incubator.com/) in 2022, following a role as external advisor for technology development until 2025.

For publications, see also google scholar.