Optical (micro)spectroscopy for characterizing structure and electronic properties of self-healing materials for energy conversion and storage

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The project will characterize the molecular mechanism in self-healing materials for energy conversion and storage by means of multimodal frequency- and time-resolved optical spectroscopy. The experiments will provide insights into the complete lifecycle of a functional self-healing material from damage to healing. In doing so, the project will gain a detailed understanding of the molecular processes occurring during healing of functional materials For polymer-based batteries and supercapacitors as well as organic solar cells. To this end, the project’s focus is threefold: (i) Investigation of the molecular structure changes during degradation and self-healing via in-situ vibrational spectroscopy and vibrational spectroelectrochemistry in combination with 2D correlation analysis to derive structure-property relationships with respect to the underlying reversible self-healing chemistry; (ii) Studying transport and chemical reactivity to provide a molecular view on the diffusion and thus self-healing processes of the self-healing functional materials researched within FuncHeal, by combining fluorescence and non-linear Raman microscopy. Here, the molecular view will be correlated with macroscopic healing studies to enable tuning the molecular components inside the materials to achieve the desired macroscopic properties and (iii) characterizing excited-state processes in damaged and healed materials for energy conversion to validate the light-induced function-determining process in self-healing materials for polymer solar cells. Furthermore, the project strives towards utilizing the spectroscopic signature of optically excited polymer materials to generate metrics to follow the kinetics of material degradation and healing.