Stephenson Institute for Renewable Energy at the University of Liverpool

Research and Facilities

Meeting the challenges of tomorrow's energy needs

SIRE is a dedicated institute focussing on the physics and chemistry that will enable future methods of energy, generation and storage. Most of our work is in the purpose-built dedicated labs opened in September 2014.

Our facilities include:

  • Battery chemistry laboratory (Hardwick)
  • Photo and nano-catalysis laboratory (Cowan; Jaeckel)
  • Heat storage and microencapsulation laboratory (Schukin)
  • Solar energy materials and solar cells laboratory (Durose/Major)
  • New materials and materials preparation (Alaria; Veal)
  • Surface analysis and UHV laboratory (Dhanak)
  • Fundamental electrochemistry (Grunder)
  • Theory of energy materials (Teobaldi)

SIRE staff located in the Department of Chemistry have the following facilities:

  • Conversion of bio-materials (Lopez-Sanchez)
  • Catalytic transformations lab (Sergeev)
  • NMR lab (Blanc)

Research Themes

Enabling Techniques

Surface science, advanced NMR, fundamental electrochemistry and theory.

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Energy Generation and Chemical Conversion

Solar photovoltaics, photocatalysis and nano-catalysts, conversion of bio-materials, catalytic transformations, themoelectrics and new semiconductor materials.

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Energy Storage

The electrical batteries of the future and encapsulated heat storage materials.

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