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Our Research

 

The Schlenker Group integrates synthetic chemistry, spectroscopy, and device engineering to reveal fundamental principles and advanced materials design concepts with technological relevance. Example targets include low-cost, high-efficiency solar photovoltaics, stable high-capacity rechargeable batteries, and scalable photocatalysts. Our unifying scientific goal is to more deeply understand electronic dynamics within heterogeneous condensed phases by measuring the system response under its native operating conditions using advanced spectroscopic techniques. 

Our Tools

 

1) Our materials design strategies are informed by physical characterization, such as femtosecond optical pump-probe spectroscopy, time-resolved luminescence, electrochemistry, time-resolved electrical measurements, in situ and ex situ structural characterization, and much more. 

 

2) From surface chemistry to molecular semiconducting dyes to functional nanostructure composites, we make materials to test targeted, data-driven physical hypotheses.

C.W. SCHLENKER

Washington Research Foundation Innovation

Associate Professor of Chemistry & Clean Energy

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON 

Department of Chemistry &

UW Clean Energy Institute 
Bagley Hall
Seattle, WA 98195

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EMAIL

schlenk [at] uw.edu

Doyk Hwang and Liam Wrigley's Heptazine Local Hydrogen Bonding Article Published in Journal of Physical Chemistry B
Jul 20, 2023

Doyk and Liam's article "Local Hydrogen Bonding Determines Branching Pathways in Intermolecular Heptazine Photochemistry" is now available online from the Journal of Physical Chemistry B. Congratulations to Liam and Doyk!

Emma Cave Defends her Thesis
Jun 6, 2023

Congratulations to Emma on receiving her PhD! Dr. Cave has accepted a position at Group14 Technologies here in Washington. We wish the best of luck to Emma in her new positon!

Alexis Wins Renewable Energy Scholarship Foundation BNSF Award
May 12, 2023

Alexis has won a BNSF scholarship through the Renewable Energy Scholarship Foundation. Nice job, Alexis!

Emma Cave receives 2022-23 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Leadership Award
Mar 21, 2023

Congratulations to Emma on being selected as a recipient of the 2022-23 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Leadership award by the Chemistry Diversity and Equity Steering Committee! This recognizes Emma's efforts toward the creation of a diverse and inclusive community at UW. Good work, Emma!

Sarah Pristash Selected for WRF Postdoctoral Fellowship
Oct 7, 2022

Sarah Pristash has been selected for a Washington Research Foundation postdoctoral fellowship to continue commercializing her thesis work. Congratulations to Sarah!

Tyson Carr Wins CEI Fellowship
Jun 4, 2022

Tyson has been awarded a UW Clean Energy Institute graduate fellowship. Congratulations to Tyson!

Alexis Glaudin and Cecily Rosenbaum Win NSF Awards
Apr 3, 2022

Alexis Glaudin has been awarded the Accelerating Quantum-Enabled Technologies NSF Research Traineeship, and Cecily Rosenbaum has been awarded the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Congratulations to Alexis and Cecily!

Sarah Pristash Defends Her Thesis
Mar 10, 2022

Congratulations to Sarah Pristash on receiving her PhD! Sarah has accepted a UW CoMotion Postdoctoral Entrepreneur fellowship to explore commercialization of her thesis work. We are excited to continue working with Sarah in the Schlenker lab!

Meghna Shankar wins Mary Gates Undergraduate Research Scholarship
Dec 11, 2021

Congratulations to Meghna Shankar on being awarded the Mary Gates Undergraduate Research Scholarship!

Emma Cave's Ion Pairing Dynamics Article Published in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
Oct 8, 2021

Emma Cave's article, "Ion-Pairing Dynamics Revealed by Kinetically Resolved In Situ FTIR Spectroelectrochemistry during Lithium-Ion Storage" is now available online from ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. Congratulations to Emma!

Dr. Doyk Hwang's article published in ChemComm
Aug 23, 2021

Dr. Doyk Hwang's article, "Photochemistry of carbon nitrides and heptazine derivatives" is now available online from Chemical Communications. Congratulations to Doyk!

Dr. Tim Pollock's work on charge trapping dynamics published in JPCC
Aug 23, 2021

Dr. Tim Pollock's article, "Charge Trapping Dynamics Revealed in CH3NH3PbI3 by Ultrafast Multipulse Spectroscopy" is now available online from the Journal of Physical Chemistry C. Congratulations to Tim!

Research Areas


Physical Chemistry

Photophysics and Electrochemistry 

Operando Spectroscopy

Solar Energy and Energy Storage​

Solid State Devices

Organic and Hybrid Materials

Advanced Materials Chemistry

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