Personal statement
I obtained my PhD in 2013 from The University of Manchester under the supervision of Prof. Michael Turner working on N-heterocyclic palladium carbene catalysts for polytriarylamine synthesis. After this I moved to the University of Liverpool working with Prof. Andrew Cooper as a postdoctoral research associate on soluble conjugated microporous polymers (C-PIMs) and water splitting using conjugated microporous polymers as photocatalysts. In 2015 started my new role as a Research Lead within the group leading the photocatalysis research. In 2020 I started my independent career as a Strathclyde Chancellor’s Fellow.
Research interests
The goal of my group is to address challenges in sustainability. In particular we are aiming to make so-called ‘solar fuels’ (e.g. hydrogen and carbon monoxide) only using renewable resources and sunlight. For this we make organic materials that act as photocatalysts to drive reactions, such as water splitting and carbon dioxide reduction. We utilise a range of different materials, such as small oligomers, polymers, conjugated microporous polymers and conjugated organic frameworks. The modularity and structural diversity of the available building blocks allows for excellent fine tuning of the properties of these organic materials thus optimising their performance. Finally, we are interested in large scale application and working towards making demonstrator devices.
Professional activities
- Invited contribution: 'Solar fuel production from water using polymer photocatalysts', 1st International Virtual Conference on Emerging Porous Materials (ePorMat-21), Bhubaneswar, India
- Speaker
- 29/7/2021
- External Examiner for PhD viva at Bergische Universität Wuppertal
- Examiner
- 6/7/2021
- Invited departmental seminar: 'Conjugated Materials for Solar Water Splitting', Department of Chemistry, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
- Speaker
- 17/6/2021
- Invited departmental seminar: 'Conjugated Materials for Solar Water Splitting'. Department of Physical & Earth Sciences, Sol Plaatje University, Kimberley, South Africa
- Speaker
- 22/4/2021
More professional activities
Projects
- Solution-processible conjugated polymers for photoelectrochemical carbon dioxide reduction (International Exchanges 2021)
- Sprick, Seb (Principal Investigator)
- 11-Jan-2022 - 10-Jan-2024
- Doctoral Training Partnership 2020-2021 University of Strathclyde | McQueen, Ewan
- Sprick, Seb (Principal Investigator) Bruns, Nico (Co-investigator) Cormack, Peter (Co-investigator) McQueen, Ewan (Research Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2021 - 01-Jan-2025
- Polymer photocatalyst films for carbon dioxide reduction
- Sprick, Seb (Principal Investigator)
- 01-Jan-2021 - 31-Jan-2022
- Nickel and Palladium bearing Conjugated Polymers and Spectator Ligands for Photo-Electrochemical Carbon Dioxide Reduction
- Sprick, Seb (Principal Investigator)
- 01-Jan-2021 - 28-Jan-2022
- Development of linear polymers for photoanodic water oxidation (International Exchanges NSFC)
- Sprick, Seb (Principal Investigator)
- 30-Jan-2021 - 29-Jan-2023
- Core-shell conjugated microporous polymers for photocatalytic bacteria inactivation
- Sprick, Seb (Principal Investigator)
- 08-Jan-2021 - 07-Jan-2022
More projects
Address
Pure and Applied Chemistry
Thomas Graham Building
Thomas Graham Building
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