Prof. Dr. Tae-Hyuk Kwon studied in Seoul National University (SNU) under the Prof.Jong-In Hong.

He received Ph. D in 2006 for the synthesis and device fabrication on the emitting layer materials for organic light-emitting diodes, and then expanded his interesting research area into organic solar cells, light-emitting electrochemical cells , and phosphorescent biosensor as a post-doctoral researcher in SNU. In 2008, he joined theProf.

Andrew Holmes group as a senior post-doctoral reseacher to carry out Victorian Organic Solar Cell Consortium project at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He is currently an assistant Professor at Ulsan National Institute of Science Technology (UNIST), Korea from 2012.

                                         Energy Recognition

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In the 21st century, the world faces more serious problems on energy, the environment, food and disease than ever before. In order to come up with these fundamental issues, light could be one of ideal solution because it is one of nature’s mechanism for carrying energy and information from one place to another with wavelength and frequency. Understanding how that light is efficiently absorbed and transformed into more useful forms of energy would give insight into how we can design photosensitizer to harness and control light more effectively. Along with that, we have researched on thiophene or Iridium complex based photosensitizers toward applications of energy harvesting (dye-sensitized solar cells,1-3 polymer solar cells4, and perovskite solar cells5), storage (supercapacitor and battery)6 system for green energy and environment and bio-fields (organelle probe and photodynamic therapy) to overcome our chronical diseases (cancer and Alzheimer) 7. In addition, we develop ultrasonic spray chemistry for hetero/multi-atom doped carbon-based materials6 and conjugated microporous polymer materials by the using of ultrasound effect that releases enormous energy when the vacuum bubble collapses, followed by their applications into energy storage and/or catalysts (CO2 reduction to prevent ocean acidification and N2 fixation for NH3 synthesis under ambient condition). Thus, these our group research topics will contribute on sustainable goals adopted by UN, such as food (F), energy (E), environment (E), and disease (D) to achieve a better and more supportable future for all of us. We will strongly believe that our research themes, FEED, supply with nourishment to our society.

Research Keywords

energy harvesting, energy storage, catalysts, photodynamic therapy.

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Research Interests

1. Enhancement of Efficiency of Organic Solar Cells by Energy Transfer

2. Synthesis of (Energy) Donor and Acceptor for Organic Solar Cells

3. Device Fabrications of Organic Solar Cells by Spray-Coated Technology

4. Development of Multi-color two photon phosphorescent probe by Energy Transfer

Ongoing research Topics

 Synthesis of energy donor and acceptor materials and large area device fabrication by spray coating technology for organic solar cells.

                                <Representative Publication>

1. Tae-Hyuk Kwon1 Torben Daeneke1 Andrew B. Holmes, Noel W. Duffy, Udo Bach, Leone Spiccia “High Efficiency Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells with Ferrocene-Based Electrolyte” Nat. Chem. 2011, 03, 211. TD (ferrocene redox mediator, electrolyte and device development) and THK (dye design and synthesis, and partially involved in writing the manuscript) contributed equally to the manuscript.

2. Tae-Hyuk Kwon, Yong Ho Oh, Ik-Soo Shin, and Jong-In Hong, “New Approach Toward Fast Response Light-Emitting Electrochemical Cells Based On Neutral Iridium Complexes via Cation Transport” Adv. Funct. Mater. 2009, 19, 711. 

3. Tae-Hyuk Kwon, Jongchul Kwon, and Jong-In Hong, “Signal Amplification via Intramolecular Energy Transfer Using Tripodal Neutral Iridium(III) complexes upon Binding to Avidin” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 3726. 

4. Tae-Hyuk Kwon, Myoung Ki Kim, Jongchul Kwon, Chang-Lyoul Lee, Jang-Joo Kim, Su-Jin Park, Dae Yup Shin, and Jong-In Hong, “Highly Efficient Light Harvesting System based on a Phosphorescent Acceptor Coupled with Dendrimer Donors via Singlet-Singlet and Triplet-Triplet Energy Transfer”, Chem. Mater.  2007, 24, 3673.

5. Alexander Colsmann, Manuel Reinhard, Tae-Hyuk Kwon, Christian Kayser, Felix Nickel, Uli Lemmer, Noel Clark, Jacek Jasieniak, Andrew Holmes, David Jones “Inverted semi-transparent organic solar cells with spray-coated, surfactant free polymer top-electrodes” Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells. 2012, 98, 118-123. (THK fabricated inverted organic solar cells by spray-coated technology)