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Sergiu Petrușca

PhD Student, c2023

Organic synthesis
20%
Spectroscopy
20%
Device fabrication
20%

I was born and raised in Bistrița, a little medieval town in northern Transylvania. Fortunately, the town did not get stuck to how it was immortalised in the first chapter of Dracula, as I had the chance to learn from a brilliant cohort of science teachers. They encouraged me to go to various olympiads, a common experience in Eastern Europe, where I have made many long-lasting friendships. Students who had already gone abroad to study encouraged us to follow. That is how I ended up doing my M.Sci in Natural Sciences at Cambridge, specialising in Chemistry.

Given that global warming is a multifaced problem requiring interdisciplinary solutions, I joined the NanoDTC, as this program was able to refine my understanding of physics and its adjacent sciences. The great sense of community and the impressive diversity of science explored by my colleagues are a continuous source of inspiration throughout my studies.

Within my PhD project, I aim to expand the molecular space of a novel class of materials, conjugated poly-radicals. The radicals have acquired substantial recognition in the field of optoelectronics, as their open-shell structure gives rise to a variety of harvestable properties. All of these are being observed using elaborate spectroscopy in physics. Thus, the quest of my PhD is to diversify, characterise, and integrate these molecules into efficient devices, that could lead to the advent of greener organic technologies.

Outside of the lab, I enjoy teaching (that’s chemistry), photography (that’s optics), and interrailing (that’s engineering). I guess the world’s just a bigger lab…

PhD supervisors: Prof. Neil Greenham (Department of Physics), Prof. Hugo Bronstein (Department of Chemistry)

Research topic: Polyradicals for Next-Generation Optoelectronics