Brian Saunders (BS) obtained his PhD at Monash University (Australia) in 1994 and worked as a post-doc with Prof. Brian Vincent at the University of Bristol between 1994 and 1997. He is a Professor of Polymer and Colloid Chemistry at the School of Materials, University of Manchester. His research career at Manchester began in 2002 and involves the application of polymer and colloid chemistry principles to solar energy and healthcare research. He has an international reputation for microgel (MG) research and published his first MG paper in 1996. MGs are pre-assembled sub-micrometre gel particles. A highlight of his healthcare research is a new method for constructing gels using pre-assembled sub-micrometer microgel particles. He has more than 157 peer-reviewed publications and is the corresponding author for 75% of them. Of those papers, more than 90 involve polymer colloids and more than 70 involve MGs. He also has more than 25 publications involving conjugated polymers and / or light harvesting particles for solar applications, which includes 10 perovskite solar cell papers. We design, construct and measure the performance of our own perosvkite solar cells at Manchester. Our solar group has recently achieved a published perovskite solar cell efficiency of 20.98%. BS is also co-founder of a University of Manchester spin-out, Gelexir Healthcare (now Gelmetix). BS welcomes enquiries for PhDs in the perosvkite solar cell and biomaterials area.

Newsflash: 

A £1.4 M perovskite solar cell proposal led by Prof. Saunders at the University of Manchester has been awarded funding by the EPSRC. My solar group at the Department of Materials has pioneered perovskite solar cell research at this university and has published efficiencies greater than 20%. We built on this work to lead a joint proposal with Imperial College and Oxford University entitled: Biomineral-inspired mechanically tough perovskite solar cells with enhanced stability. This is an important milestone for energy research at the University of Manchester and promises to lead to exciting breakthroughs in perovskite solar cell stability enhancement.  A perovskite solar cell postdoc position for 3 years is now avaialabe. See the link below.

https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/CTY706/research-associate-in-materials-chemistry

The polymer and colloid chemistry research conducted within the Saunders group has two core themes: solar energy and biomaterials. We use polymer and colloid science to address major societal challenges. The group has collaborations with other UK and international universities as well as industry. Our perovskite solar cell research involves using microgels as mesoscopic additives or using synthetic biomaterials such as hydroxyapatite to scavenge lead. Both microgels and hydroxyapatite have caused solar cell performance improvements. We have biomaterial research projects involving using microgels to repair damaged intervertebral discs (IVDs). Microgel particles are swellable polymer colloids. We have shown that injection of a pH-responsive microgel into degenerated IVDs result in an increase in disc height under biomechanically meaningful loads. This research resulted in highly productive ESPRC Established Career Funding (for BRS) and a Spin Out (Gelmetix Healthcare). In addition, we have a long-standing collaboration with Synthomer in the area of synthetic rubber gloves. Our thriving multicultural research group is currently 13 strong and has students from Britain, China, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. Prof. Saunders welcomes enquiries for PhDs in the perovskite solar cell and biomaterials areas. See also the Newsflash about perovskite solar cells on the Overview page.

Recent research news from the group

Recent key papers: We are very excited about recent papers from our group.

Dr Nam Nguyen has just had a very nice conducting gel paper accepted:

Nguyen et al., Highly Stretchable Conductive Covalent Coacervate Gels for Electronic Skin, Biomacromolecules, 23, 1423, 2022.

Dr Hasif Mokhtar has also had a very nice paper accepted:

Mokhtar et al, Spherical hydroxyapatite nanoparticle scaffolds for reduced lead release from damaged perovskite solar cells, Communications Materials., DOI:10.1038/s43246-022-00299-3

A full list of publications from the group appear in the Publications page.

• Biomaterials
• Polymers Composites and Carbon