This project will investigate the opportunity for lyotropic liquid crystal (LLC) assemblies of azobenzene-photosurfactants (AzoPS) as high energy storage STFs for the first time. It has recently been shown that neutral AzoPS form a variety of LLC phases, which can be accessed at low concentrations (10 wt%) through strategic design of the molecular structure. The LLC mesophases could be destroyed upon UV irradiation and re-assembled under blue light (or heat). The AzoPS LLCs could offer enhanced energy storage density for STFs due to the combination of increased intermolecular interactions and a high chromophore density. The key focus will be to determine the energy storage density. To understand this new material design space, the project will tune molecular packing by using: different LLC mesophases, co-dilution with a regular surfactant, and solvent.

Combined structural, spectroscopy and thermal characterisation will be used to correlate changes in the photoswitch state, to structural packing and the energy storage density. Attention will be paid to understanding the heterogeneity, kinetics and energetics of photoisomerisation in AzoPS LLCs using small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and infrared spectroscopy to design system with high energy storage density.