STEPforGGR is a research and training focused initiative consisting of world-leading institutions in the multidisciplinary and intersectoral subject areas of physics, chemistry, engineering and manufacturing. The overarching purpose is to promote a novel greenhouse gas removal technology: removal of non-CO2 greenhouse gases utilising large-scale atmospheric photocatalysis enabled by solar up-draft towers. The objective is to collaboratively evaluate the feasibility of this new but entirely untested negative emission technology and build up a foundation for climate policy debate and practical application tackling climate change at the global scale. Through comprehensive and complementary expertise and the robust network among theoreticians, experimentalists and manufacturers, STEPforGGR will identify bottle necks (rate limiting steps, work package 1 (WP1)) and provide solutions for optimization of the complex process through modelling and experiments (WPs2&3), as well as estimate the scalability (WP4) and sustainability (WP5) of the truly pioneering greenhouse gas removal technology at the climatically relevant scale. STEPforGGR will produce multiple avenues for career development, cross-sectorial experience, and academic training in a multi-cultural, interdisciplinary and intersectoral environment formed by a consortium of six world-leading research organizations and one industrial partner.

Most natural organisms show fascinating mechanical versatility when interacting with their environments. Stiffness tuning in nature is used as a powerful tool to combine the load carrying functionality of rigid structures with compliance and adaptability. A remarkable example of stiffness tuning can be seen in echinoderms, such as sea cucumbers, where the mechanical stiffness can change by a factor of 10 in less than 1s. Human-made structures are normally designed to meet a specific load carrying requirement. To add other functionalities, additional components are often required; these increase the total weight and cost of the structure and consequently cause limitations in performance, efficiency and safety. Therefore, embedding sensing, actuation and control within a structure is highly desirable. Inspired by stiffness tuning in natural organisms, various synthetic materials have been developed in recent years for active structural control. However, achieving significant stiffness reduction in a short time frame with minimum power requirements but without undermining the load carrying capacity of the structure remain as some of main challenges. In this proposal, we aim to tackle these challenges by exploiting recent advances in optoelectronics and nanotechnology to design, manufacture and evaluate a nano-structured interconnected metallic network embedded in a thermoplastic layer. This layer will be then employed, as an active interface, in a conventional multi-layered structure. Upon activation, it will provide rapid structural control and impact protection capabilities. We will use a combined experimental and numerical approach to investigate the electro-thermo-mechanical response of this interface. Understanding the main physical obstacles that limit the response time and the fundamental parameters controlling the stability and the failure of this interface under harsh electro-thermal loading will help us to better engineer this interface at the micro level to meet the fast response and low power requirements. This new understanding will accelerate the technology readiness level of active structural control technology to be used in future multi-functional and smart structures. This technology has a wide range of application in robotics, morphing and deployable structures, active damping and active impact protection. As a potential representative technology, we aim to employ this active interlayer in laminated glass windscreens for automotive vehicles. Application of this transparent active interface in windscreens will help protect vulnerable road users against head-related injuries and is believed to be a step change toward designing more pedestrian/cyclist-friendly vehicles. To motivate the development of this technology, the University of Surrey is partnering with Pilkington, a member of the NSG group, which is one of the world's largest manufactures of glass and glazing products for architectural, automotive and technical glass sectors to manufacture and test this active transparent interlayer for application in automotive windscreens.

It has been shown that large office buildings waste 20-40% of their energy on air-conditioning to cool down the building as a result of the sun. This is highly inefficient and has an impact on the environment. One way that has been proposed to tackle this problem is the use of Smart Windows. These windows are comprised of chromic materials that change to a dark colour upon the application an external stimulus. The change in colour results in high energy UV light that heats up the building being filtered out, thus reducing the need for air-conditioning. It is predicted that these technologies will save 20% on their energy bills, as the buildings will not heat up as much from the sunlight. However, so far this transparent-to-dark colour has been difficult to achieve. Suitable materials for Smart Glass that can change colour can be metal-based, organic-based or a hybrid of the two. Metal-based chromics are already used in displays and diagnostic tests. However, precious metals (Au and Ag) used in these high-end technologies is a rapidly running out resource, and are often difficult and dangerous to mine, and their use relies on countries cooperating well with each other. The processing of metals such as Cd, Lb, U and Cs has huge environmental consequences and the disposal of them leads to toxic and nuclear waste which has devastating effects on the workers, neighbouring villages and wildlife. Any metals that can be replaced with organic alternatives have a huge benefit to health, the economy and the environment. Organic materials are generally easier to process and can be synthesised on a larger scale. We have found a molecule based on a functionalised naphthalene diimide that when self-assembled in water shows great promise to be used in such applications. From proof of principle data we have collected, the assembled material can undergo a reversible transparent to black transition by applying a small voltage to the sample. This transition is quick and can be cycled at least 100 times without loss of colour intensity or response time. However, this system needs optimising to be able to fulfil industry standards, for example stability over 1000 cycles, reducing the speed of response of both transitions and the uniformity of colour across the device. We aim to do this with this proposal to make the organic alternative to metal systems competitive to use in the Smart Window technology.

Material architectures with pores on the 5 - 50 nm length scale offer distinct opportunities for chemo- and biosensing applications. Capillary condensation, i.e. the filling of pores with condensed liquid from the vapour phase, is highly dependent on the pore size and relative humidity. Efficient trapping of target analytes relates to a combination of adequate surface interaction and control over spatial confinement. The aim of this research proposal is to build porous materials with unprecedented functioning in humidity and biomedical sensing through the structural control offered by the use of block copolymer (BCP) co-assembly. BCPs are macromolecules that are composed of chemically dissimilar building blocks, which are linked by covalent bonds. Solvent evaporation leads to phase separation into nanoscale morphologies, which can be controlled by the molecular design of the BCPs. In a co-assembly approach, BCPs are used as sacrificial host to structure direct inorganic guest material. After structure formation, the organic material is removed to reveal a porous inorganic network. Conceptually, this approach allows to systematically vary and control key parameters of porous thin films, such as porosity, pore size and dispersity as well as the pore architecture, by modifications to the molecular building blocks and processing conditions. In the course of the proposed study, parameters that govern the pore size and dispersity will be elucidated and general effectiveness of BCP-derived porous materials evaluated on two different sensing platforms, namely humidity and biomedical sensing. In humidity sensing, the fabrication of transparent material architectures will be pursued that allow accurate determination over the full humidity range via capacitative means, offering an integrated route to responsive glazing components for automotive and building applications. Findings will be implemented in a windscreen prototype with responsive anti-fogging control. In the light of the gradual extinction of the internal combustion engine towards electrified mobility where heat is no longer abundant and thus a significant burden to the energy consumption, such technology will offer widespread impact. For biomedical sensing, the trapping of target analytes in porous networks will be studied for a number of candidates whose quantification is important in therapy, e.g. viruses, therapeutic antibodies, exosomes or microRNA. Applicability of effective trapping and the envisioned superior pore size control will be implemented in novel types of biosensors that allow detection by changes in electrochemical currents associated to a blockage of the pores. Successful proof-of-principle will stimulate the development of low-cost handheld diagnostic devices in point-of-care applications to improve therapeutic outcomes at minimal side-effects.

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSC) can be described as a form of "artificial photosynthesis" because, in both cases, light is harvested by a pigment (chlorophyll in photosynthesis or a synthetic dye in DSC). This is interesting because photosynthesis is ~5% efficient in terms of the incident light energy (i.e. photons) captured to the energy in the photosynthetic by-products. Despite this apparently low efficiency, photosynthesis has supported the planet's biosphere for aeons. One reason for this is the huge amount of sunlight which reaches the Earth's surface every day. This has been estimated to be ~6,000x more than annual global energy consumption despite the growing global population using huge amounts of energy. Given that the sun will last for billions more years, sunlight is vastly more abundant than any other energy source currently available. In this context, if we use 10% efficient PV, using only 0.2% of the Earth's surface would meet energy demands whilst releasing only trace greenhouse gases during production and none during operation. This will slow the accelerating pace of fossil fuel related climate change. Whilst PV uptake has increased hugely recently (~11GW in UK and >225GW globally), this still represents a tiny fraction of current energy demand; the question is why? Crystalline Si PV currently dominates the market (~90%) but is heavy, rigid and is usually made from batch-like processes into limited product forms (rectangular, encapsulated, glass panels). And despite these products being available for many years, they are still bolted onto frames attached onto existing roofs with wires often running across open roof-space. They do not fit, they are a "bolt-on" solution. This research will develop PV which can be printed by continuous (roll-to-roll, R2R) processing. Because R2R is faster than batch processing, it will reduce manufacturing costs but increase the amount of product which can be made. R2R product can also be made to any length or width which will revolutionise PV product form. Perhaps most importantly, by varying the PV substrate, this will enable PV to be fully integrated into roof/wall panels or windows. This will drastically reduce installation and balance of systems costs (i.e. PV panel mounting system, DC/AC power inverters, wiring, switches, battery storage) which make up almost half of the cost of most PV installations. DSC technology is already in commercial production (www.gcell.co.uk) and is already known to be suitable for R2R processing. In addition, DSC raw materials are non-toxic and abundant. Whilst DSC device lifetimes >25,000h have been reported (equivalent to ~25y operation), the liquid electrolytes used can leak and are corrosive to some metals which increases substrate costs. This proposal will exchange this liquid electrolyte for a solid, charge carrier to make solid state DSC (ssDSC) devices to avoid these issues. Whilst ssDSC have been made before, it has been difficult to control their construction because this involves depositing 2 thin layers of different chemicals onto porous metal oxide particles in a porous film. The resulting inconsistent layer coverage causes energy losses which limits device efficiency. To overcome this, we will use self-assembling molecules and computer modelling to explore surface chemistry/structure to speed-up the research. Thus, we will design dyes and charge carriers to behave like "self-parking cars in a car park" and move to the correct position before fixing themselves in place. Then, by controlling the self-assembly process, we will add multiple dyes into the device to increase light harvesting to improve device efficiency to reduce pay-back times; i.e. the time when the customer has saved enough money on their energy bills to pay off the system purchase costs. By combining computer modelling and experiment, we will cut design to manufacture times up to 10-fold by reducing the number of material modification cycles required.