Zhiwei Liu

[Competition-funded UoM-Peking dual award scheme; applicants are instructed to enter 'Dual award funding'.] This PhD studentship is part of the University of Manchester–Peking University dual award scheme and focuses on advanced energy materials for bright and efficient optoelectronic devices . The project addresses the challenge of reducing the energy consumption of lighting and displays while improving device performance, especially for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) used in displays, solid-state lighting, wearable electronics, sensors, and virtual/mixed-reality technologies. The research explores a new family of strongly photo-emissive materials, including coinage metal complexes based on carbene-metal-amide systems or acetylides, as well as doublet-state luminophores based on Ce(III) or Eu(II) complexes. These materials have recently shown excellent photoluminescent properties and are being developed for OLEDs with high efficiency and operating stability. The successful candidate will be part of an established team at The University of Manchester and will work in collaboration with Peking University . The project is jointly supervised by Dr Alexander Romanov , Prof. Michael Turner , and Prof Zhiwei Liu . It offers a strongly collaborative research environment spanning Manchester and Peking, with opportunities to contribute to the development of new emissive materials and their use in optoelectronic devices. The work combines materials discovery with device-oriented research, giving the student scope to engage with photophysical studies and OLED fabrication alongside synthetic chemistry. The project is aimed at an ambitious researcher interested in emissive molecular systems and collaborative international research.