Professor Robert Hoye

Robert Hoye completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge (2012–14), followed by a postdoc at MIT (2015–16), then two independent Research Fellowships at Magdalene College (2016–19) and Downing College (2019–20) in Cambridge. He became an independent Principal Investigator in 2018 through the Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowship, which he initially held at the University of Cambridge, before moving to Imperial College as a Lecturer in January 2020. He became an Associate Professor in the University of Oxford in October 2022.

Teaching

Currently, I teach the Inorganic Chemistry component of the Chemistry tutorials at St John's. Previously, I have lectured on electrochemistry, thin films synthesis, and electronic materials and devices.

Our vision is to develop a new generation of energy materials that can tolerate defects to achieve efficient performance when grown by cost-effective, scalable synthetic approaches. We are an interdisciplinary team, with interests spanning from creating new fundamental insights into carrier-matter interactions, through to utilising our skills in controlling complex materials and interfaces to produce high-performing devices for clean energy conversion.

Broadly, our research is clustered into three main areas covering fundamentals, synthesis and device development:

Perovskite-Inspired Materials

We are developing a unique class of sustainable semiconductors that can tolerate imperfections to achieve efficient performance despite high defect densities. Materials studied include bismuth-based perovskites, chalcohalides and chalcogenides. Read more in our recent commentary in Nature Communications.

Advanced Materials Synthesis

We have devised a spectrum of solution- and vapour-based methods for synthesising high-quality nanocrystals, thin films and single crystals from novel materials. These include chemical vapour transport, spatial atomic layer deposition, and ligand-assisted reprecipitation of nanoplatelets with controlled thickness.

Sustainable Energy Devices

Through careful control over bulk properties and interfaces, we have assembled complex structures to derive functionality from new materials, with applications spanning from photovoltaics, photoelectrochemical cells, light-emitting diodes and radiation detectors.

Selected publications

Y.-T. Huang,† S. R. Kavanagh,† M. Righetto, M. Rusu, I. Levine, T. Unold, S. J. Zelewski, A. J. Sneyd, K. Zhang, L. Dai, A. J. Britton, J. Ye, J. Julin, M. P. Napari, Z. Zhang, J. Xiao, M. Laitinen, L. Torrente-Murciano, S. D. Stranks, A. Rao, L. M. Herz, D. O. Scanlon, A. Walsh, R. L. Z. Hoye*, 'Strong Absorption and Ultrafast Localisation in NaBiS2Nanocrystals with Slow Charge-Carrier Recombination', Nature Communications, 2022, 13, 4960. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32669-3

A. M. Ganose, D. O. Scanlon, A. Walsh, R. L. Z. Hoye*, 'The Defect Challenge of Wide-Bandgap Semiconductors for Photovoltaics and Beyond', Nature Communications, 2022, 13, 4715 [Featured as Editor's highlight]

J. Ye, Z. Li, D. J. Kubicki, Y. Zhang, L. Dai, C. Otero-Martínez, M. A. Reus, R. Arul, K. R. Dudipala, Z. Andaji-Garmaroudi, Y.-T. Huang, Z. Li, Z. Chen, P. Müller-Buschbaum, H.-L. Yip, S. D. Stranks, C. P. Grey, J. J. Baumberg, N. C. Greenham, L. Polavarapu, A. Rao*, and R. L. Z. Hoye*, 'Elucidating the Role of Antisolvents on the Surface Chemistry and Optoelectronic Properties of CsPbBrxI3-x Perovskite Nanocrystals', Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2022, 144, 12102–115

V. Andrei,† R. A. Jagt,† M. Rahaman, L. Lari, V. K. Lazarov, J. L. MacManus-Driscoll,* R. L. Z. Hoye,* E. Reisner*, 'Long-term solar water and CO2 splitting with photoelectrochemical BiOI-BiVO4 tandems', Nature Materials, 2022, 21, 864–68

C. A. R. Perini, T. A. S. Doherty, S. D. Stranks,* J.-P. C.-B.,* R. L. Z. Hoye*, 'Pressing Challenges in Halide Perovskite Photovoltaics – From the Atomic to Module Level', Joule, 2021, 5(5), 1024–30

Awards and distinctions

Awards

2021: Imperial President's Award for Outstanding Early Career Researcher. Read the press release following this link

2021: Rosenhain Medal and Prize by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3)

2020: Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN) Rising Star Award for international research leadership in nanotechnology (awarded to two people globally each year)

2020: Royal Society of Chemistry Emerging Investigator, included as part of the Journal of Materials Chemistry C 2020 series. Read the paper following this link

2019: Sir Henry Royce Medal, awarded by the Institution of Engineering and Technology

2019: Included in the Forbes 30 under 30 – Europe

2019: Included in the IOM3 '15 under 30'

2018: Young Engineer of the Year, awarded by the Royal Academy of Engineering

2015: Toby Jackman prize for the most outstanding PhD thesis

Fellowships

2018–23: Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowship. Held at the University of Cambridge (2018–19), Imperial College London (2020–22) and University of Oxford (2022–23)

2019–20: Silverman Research Fellowship, Downing College Cambridge

2016–19: Thomas Nevile Junior Research Fellowship, Magdalene College Cambridge

Professional membership

2020: Elected Chartered Engineer (CEng) and Chartered Scientist (CSci) via IOM3

2020: Elected by invitation a Fellow of the IOM3 (FIMMM)