Dr Bjorn Winther-Jensen - Researcher Profile

Bjorn Winther-Jensen

Address

Materials Engineering
Faculty of Engineering, Clayton

Contact Details

Tel: +61 3 990 55343

Email: Bjorn.WInther-Jensen@monash.edu


Biography

Fuelling promise for the future

Shine sunlight on water and produce a clean, green renewable fuel; it’s one of science’s Holy Grails. And with the addition to that simple process of the highly complex conducting polymers that are a chief focus of his research, Associate Professor Bjorn Winther-Jensen says he is “getting close” to the goal.

 

Using electrolysis to split water into its component parts of hydrogen and oxygen is one way of obtaining hydrogen, which holds much interest as a possible replacement for fossil fuels. The only by-product of using hydrogen as fuel is water.

Splitting water generally requires large amounts of energy. If that energy is obtained from fossil fuels, the process is not only expensive but counterproductive, thanks to the greenhouse gases it produces.

Bjorn, an Australian Research Council Future Fellow, has been developing conducting polymers to use as a base material for electrocatalysis in a sunlight-driven process, increasing the polymers’ level of catalytic activity to ensure greater efficiency. These organic materials are cost-efficient as, unlike more traditional inorganic materials, they do not rely on expensive catalysts such as platinum or palladium.

“It’s far from a practical device, but we can show that in using the organic materials we can have a system where when you shine light on it we make hydrogen and oxygen,” says Bjorn. “It’s from light, basically, not using other energy.” 

Once obtained, hydrogen can be stored and used in fuel cells for such purposes as powering vehicles; there is also great demand for it from industry. If it could be obtained in quantity and without unwanted environmental side-effects, it brings closer the possibility of a hydrogen economy.

Exactly how the organic polymers work is still not clear, says Bjorn, and with support from a Discovery Project grant much of his research involves trying to find out more about them. His work is also part of collaborative efforts funded by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science.

 “We are still looking at the generic understanding of how our organic polymers actually work,” he says. “People saw some of these catalytic effects or reactions 10 or 15 years ago, but why the conducting polymers can work as catalysts is not described. So we have taken that on.”

In order to split a water molecule, you need to move four electrons. 

“It’s not one event; it’s actually four you must do almost simultaneously. It needs to be fast. There are a lot of interactions there where we don’t really know what is going on, therefore we cannot optimise our material to hold it longer or whatever is required.”

Better understanding is needed to ensure the best approach. 

“We can think about making fancy devices, but without understanding how it actually is working, then it’s very hard to optimise. There are too many possibilities and too few guidelines.”

Efforts to get a clearer picture of what is happening include using spectroscopy at the Australian Synchrotron.

If they get it right, says Bjorn, then it should be possible to produce hydrogen on a large scale. 

“It could be a major source of fuel,” he says. Little wonder that he adds: “We are slightly excited around the place.”

 

Keywords

Metal-air batteries, Nanotechnology, Nanotechnology, polymer-based air-electrodes, Polymer-based air-electrodes for fuel-cells

Qualifications

PHD (MICRO-PATTERNING OF CONDUCTING POLYMERS)
Institution: Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
Year awarded: 2005
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
Institution: Technical University of Denmark
Year awarded: 1995

Publications

Journal Articles

Kolodziejczyk, B.P., Winther-Jensen, O., Macfarlane, D.R., Winther-Jensen, B., 2012, Conducting polymer alloys for photo-enhanced electro-catalytic oxygen reduction, Journal Of Materials Chemistry [P], vol 22, issue 21, The Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge UK, pp. 10821-10826.

Armel, V., Winther-Jensen, O., Kerr, R.J.P., Macfarlane, D.R., Winther-Jensen, B., 2012, Designed electrodeposition of nanoparticles inside conducting polymers, Journal Of Materials Chemistry [P], vol 22, issue 37, The Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge UK, pp. 19767-19773.

Hilder, M., Winther-Jensen, O., Winther-Jensen, B., Macfarlane, D.R., 2012, Graphene/zinc nano-composites by electrochemical co-deposition, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics [P], vol 14, issue 40, Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge England, pp. 14034-14040.

Jimison, L.H., Hama, A., Strakosas, X., Armel, V., Khodagholy, D., Ismailova, E., Malliaras, G., Winther-Jensen, B., Owens, R.M., 2012, PEDOT:TOS with PEG: a biofunctional surface with improved electronic characteristics, Journal Of Materials Chemistry [P], vol 22, issue 37, The Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge UK, pp. 19498-19505.

Hilder, M., Winther-Jensen, B., Clark, N.B., 2012, The effect of binder and electrolyte on the performance of thin zinc-air battery, Electrochimica Acta [P], vol 69, Pergamon-Elsevier Science, Oxford England, pp. 308-314.

Swiegers, G.F., Macfarlane, D.R., Officer, D.L., Ballantyne, A.M., Boskovic, D., Chen, J., Dismukes, G., Gardner, G.P., Hocking, R.K., Smith, P.F., Spiccia, L., Wagner, P., Wallace, G.G., Winther-Jensen, B., Winther-Jensen, O., 2012, Towards hydrogen energy: progress on catalysts for water splitting, Australian Journal of Chemistry [E], vol 65, issue 6, CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood Vic Australia, pp. 577-582.

Winther-Jensen, O., Chatjaroenporn, K., Winther-Jensen, B., Macfarlane, D.R., 2012, Towards hydrogen production using a breathable electrode structure to directly separate gases in the water splitting reaction, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy [P], vol 37, issue 10, Pergamon-Elsevier Scienct Ltd, Oxford England, pp. 8185-8189.

Hilder, M., Winther-Jensen, B., Forsyth, M., Macfarlane, D., 2011, Direct electro-deposition of graphene from aqueous suspensions, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics [P], vol 13, issue 20, Royal Society for Chemistry, England, pp. 9187-9193.

Winther-Jensen, B., Enecht, T., Ong, C., Vongsvivut, J., Clark, N., 2011, Inhomogeneity effects in vapor phase polymerization PEDOT: A tool to influence conductivity, Macromolecular Materials And Engineering [P], vol 296, issue 2, Wiley-Blackwell, USA, pp. 185-189.

Winther-Jensen, B., Macfarlane, D., 2011, New generation, metal-free electrocatalysts for fuel cells, solar cells and water splitting, Energy & Environmental Science [P], vol 4, issue 8, The Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge UK, pp. 2790-2798.

Winther-Jensen, O., Winther-Jensen, B., Macfarlane, D., 2011, Photostimulated electrocatalysis of water oxidation by conjugated polymers, Electrochemistry Communications [P], vol 13, issue 4, Elsevier Science Inc, New York USA, pp. 307-309.

Winther-Jensen, B., Fraser, K., Ong, C., Forsyth, M., Macfarlane, D., 2010, Conducting polymer composite materials for hydrogen generation, Advanced Materials [P], vol 22, issue 15, Wiley -VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Germany, pp. 1727-1730.

Thompson, B.C., Winther-Jensen, O., Vongsvivut, J., Winther-Jensen, B., Macfarlane, D.R., 2010, Conducting polymer enzyme alloys: Electromaterials exhibiting direct electron transfer, Macromolecular Rapid Communications [P], vol 31, issue 14, WILEY-VCH Verlag GMBH, Weinheim Germany, pp. 1293-1297.

Mozer, A., Panda, D., Gambhir, S., Romeo, T., Winther-Jensen, B., Wallace, G., 2010, Flexible and compressible goretex-PEDOT membrane electrodes for solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells, Langmuir [P], vol 26, issue 3, American Chemical Society, USA, pp. 1452-1455.

Winther-Jensen, O., Desai, S., Shepherd, R., Innis, P., Winther-Jensen, B., Forsyth, M., Wallace, G., Macfarlane, D., 2010, Ion effects in REDOX cycling of conducting polymer based electrochromic materials, Electrochemistry Communications [P], vol 12, issue 11, Elsevier Science Inc, New York USA, pp. 1505-1508.

Mozer, A., Panda, D., Gambhir, S., Winther-Jensen, B., Wallace, G., 2010, Microsecond dye regeneration kinetics in efficient solid state dye-sensitized solar cells using a photoelectrochemically deposited PEDOT hole conductor, Journal Of The American Chemical Society [P], vol 132, issue 28, American Chemical Society, USA, pp. 9543-9545.

Arpanaei, A., Winther-Jensen, B., Theodosiou, E., Kingshott, P., Hobley, T., Thomas, O., 2010, Surface modification of chromatography adsorbents by low temperature low pressure plasma, Journal of Chromatography A [P], vol 1217, issue 44, Elsevier BV, The Netherlands, pp. 6905-6916.

Sirimanne, P., Winther-Jensen, B., Weerasinghe, H., Cheng, Y., 2010, Towards an all-polymer cathode for dye sensitized photovoltaic cells, Thin Solid Films [P], vol 518, issue 10, Elsevier S.A., Switzerland, pp. 2871-2875.

Izgorodin, A., Winther-Jensen, O., Winther-Jensen, B., Macfarlane, D.R., 2009, CdS thin-film electrodeposition from a phosphonium ionic liquid, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics [P], vol 11, Royal Society of Chemistry, UK, pp. 8532-8537.

Sivakkumar, S.R., Howlett, P.C., Winther-Jensen, B., Forsyth, M., Macfarlane, D.R., 2009, Polyterthiophene/CNT composite as a cathode material for lithium batteries employing an ionic liquid electrolyte, Electrochimica Acta [P], vol 54, Elsevier, Netherlands, pp. 6844-6849.

Winther-Jensen, O., Ranganathan, V., Sun, J., Winther-Jensen, B., Macfarlane, D.R., 2009, Self polymerising ionic liquid gel, Chemical Communications [P], Royal Society of Chemistry, UK, pp. 3041-3043.

Subramanian, P., Clark, N., Winther-Jensen, B., Macfarlane, D.R., Spiccia, L., 2009, Vapour-phase polymerization of pyrrole and 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene using iron(III) 2,4,6-trimethylbenzenesulfonate, Australian Journal of Chemistry [E], vol 62, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne, Australia, pp. 133-139.

Winther-Jensen, B., Macfarlane, D.R., Forsyth, M., 2008, Control of magnesium interfacial reactions in aqueous electrolytes towards a biocompatible battery, Elctrochinica Acta, vol 53, issue 20, Pergamon Elsevier Science Ltd, England, pp. 5881-5884.

Bayley, P.M., Winther-Jensen, B., Macfarlane, D.R., Rocher, N.M., Forsyth, M., 2008, Enhanced properties in chemically polymerized poly(terthiophene) using vapour phase techniques, Reactive and Functional Polymers [P], vol 68, issue 7, Elsevier, Netherlands, pp. 1119-1126.

Winther-Jensen, B., Winther-Jensen, O., Forsyth, M., Macfarlane, D.R., 2008, High rates of oxygen reduction over a vapor phase-polymerized PEDOT electrode, Science, vol 321, issue 5889, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, DC, pp. 671-674.

Winther-Jensen, B., Forsyth, M., West, K., Andreasen, J.W., Bayley, P.M., Pas, S.J., Macfarlane, D.R., 2008, Order-disorder transitions in poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene), Polymer, vol 49, issue 2, Elsevier, Netherlands, pp. 481-487.

Subramanian, P., Clark, N.B., Spiccia, L., Winther-Jensen, B., Forsyth, C.M., 2008, Vapour phase polymerisation of pyrrole induced by iron(III) alkylbenzenesulfonate salt oxidising agents, Synthetic Metals, vol 158, issue 17-18, Elsevier, The Netherlands, pp. 704-711.

Winther-Jensen, B., Clark, N., Subramanian, P., Helmer, R.J.N., Ashraf, S., Wallace, G.G., Spiccia, L., Macfarlane, D.R., 2007, Application of polypyrrole to flexible substrates, Journal of Applied Polymer Science, vol 104, issue 6, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., USA, pp. 3938-3947.

Winther-Jensen, B., Forsyth, M., West, K., Andreasen, J.W., Wallace, G.G., Macfarlane, D.R., 2007, High current density and drift velocity in templated conducting polymers, Organic Electronics, vol 8, issue 6, Elsevier Science BV, Netherlands, pp. 796-800.

Andersen, M., Carle, J.E., Cruys-Bagger, N., Lilliedal, M.R., Hammond, M.A., Winther-Jensen, B., Krebs, F.C., 2007, Transparent anodes for polymer photovoltaics: Oxygen permeability of PEDOT, Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells, vol 91, issue 6, Elsevier Science BV, Amsterdam Netherlands, pp. 539-543.

Chen, J., Winther-Jensen, B., Lynam, C., Ngamna, O., Moulton, S.E., Zhang, W., Wallace, G.G., 2006, A simple means to immobilize enzyme into conducting polymers via entrapment, Electrochemical and Solid-State Letters [P], vol 9, issue 7, The Electrochemical Society, USA, pp. 68-70.

Jiang, J., Winther-Jensen, B., Kjear, E.M., 2006, Characterization of plasma-polymerized 4-vinyl pyridine with silver nanoparticles on poly(ethylene terephthalate) film for anti-microbial properties, Macromolecular Symposia, vol 239, Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH, Weinheim Germany, pp. 84-90.

Bremmell, K.E., Kingshott, P., Ademovic, Z., Winther-Jensen, B., Griesser, H.J., 2006, Colloid probe AFM investigation of interactions between fibrinogen and PEG-like plasma polymer surfaces, Langmuir, vol 22, issue 1, American Chemical Society, Washington DC USA, pp. 313-318.

Bay, L., West, K., Winther-Jensen, B., Jacobsen, T., 2006, Electrochemical reaction rates in a dye-sensitised solar cell - The iodide/tri-iodide redox system, Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, vol 90, issue 3, Elsevier Science BV, Amsterdam Netherlands, pp. 341-351.

Winther-Jensen, B., Krebs, F.C., 2006, High-conductivity large-area semi-transparent electrodes for polymer photovoltaics by silk screen printing and vapour-phase deposition, Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, vol 90, issue 2, Elsevier Science BV, Amsterdam Netherlands, pp. 123-132.

Winther-Jensen, B., West, K., 2006, Stability of highly conductive poly-3,4-ethylene-dioxythiophene, Reactive and Functional Polymers, vol 66, issue 5, Elsevier Science BV, Amsterdam Netherlands, pp. 479-483.

Krebs, F.C., Biancardo, M., Winther-Jensen, B., Spanggard, H., Alstrup, J., 2006, Strategies for incorporation of polymer photovoltaics into garments and textiles, Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, vol 90, issue 7-8, Elsevier Science BV, Amsterdam Netherlands, pp. 1058-1067.

Winther-Jensen, B., Breiby, D.W., West, K., 2005, Base inhibited oxidative polymerization of 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene with iron(III)tosylate, Synthetic Metals, vol 152, issue 1-3, Elsevier Science SA, Lausanne Switzerland, pp. 1-4.

Winther-Jensen, B., Norrman, K., Kingshott, P., West, K., 2005, Characterization of plasma-polymerized fused polycyclic compounds for binding conducting polymers, Plasma Processing and Polymers, vol 2, issue 4, Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH, Weinheim Germany, pp. 319-327.

Norrman, K., Winther-Jensen, B., 2005, Controlling the plasma-polymerization process of N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone, Plasma Processes and Polymers, vol 2, issue 5, Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH, Weinheim Germany, pp. 414-423.

Winther-Jensen, B., West, K., 2005, Interpenetrating networks of two conducting polymers, Synthetic Metals, vol 148, issue 2, Elsevier Science SA, Lausanne Switzerland, pp. 105-109.

Winther-Jensen, B., Chen, J., West, K., Wallace, G., 2005, 'Stuffed' conducting polymers, Polymer, vol 46, issue 13, Elsevier Science Ltd, Oxon England, pp. 4664-4669.

Ademovic, Z., Wei, J., Winther-Jensen, B., Hou, X., Kingshott, P., 2005, Surface modification of PET films using pulsed AC plasma polymerisation aimed at preventing protein adsorption, Plasma Processes and Polymers, vol 2, issue 1, Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH, Weinheim Germany, pp. 53-63.

Bouaidat, S., Winther-Jensen, B., Flygenring Christensen, S., Jonsmann, J., 2004, Plasma-polymerized coatings for bio-MEMS applications, Sensors and Actuators A-Physical, vol 110, issue 1-3, Elsevier Science SA, Lausanne Switzerland, pp. 390-394.

Winther-Jensen, B., Chen, J., West, K., Wallace, G., 2004, Vapor phase polymerization of pyrrole and thiophene using iron(III) sulfonates as oxidizing agents, Macromolecules, vol 37, issue 16, American Chemical Society, Washington DC USA, pp. 5930-5935.

Winther-Jensen, B., West, K., 2004, Vapor-phase polymerization of 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene: A route to highly conducting polymer surface layers, Macromolecules, vol 37, issue 12, American Chemical Society, Washington DC USA, pp. 4538-4543.

Other

Winther-Jensen, B., 2009, Method of coating the surface of an inorganic substrates with an organic material and the product obtained, USA.

Glejbol, K., Winther-Jensen, B., 2004, A method of modifying the surface of a solid polymer substrate and the product obtained.

Winther-Jensen, B., Glejbol, K., 2003, Method for the excitation of a plasma and a use of the method.

Winther-Jensen, B., 2002, A method and an apparatus for excitation of a plasma.

Winther-Jensen, B., Christensen, S.F., Petersen, S.G., 2002, A method for the preparation of a substrate for immobilising chemical compounds and the substrate and the use thereof.

Bouaidat, S., Jonsmann, J., Winther-Jensen, B., Christensen, S.F., 2002, Method of lift-off microstructuring deposition material on a substrate, substrates obtainable by the method, and use thereof.

Winther-Jensen, B., Arbjorn, K., 2002, Method of plasma polymerisation of substituted benzenes, polymeric material obtainable by the method, and use thereof.

Postgraduate Research Supervisions

Current Supervision

Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
3-D PEDOT electrodes for enhanced catalysis of the oxygen reduction reaction.
Supervisors:
Winther-Jensen, B (Main), Forsyth, M (Associate).
Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
Flexible, printed dye sensitised solar cells..
Supervisors:
Macfarlane, D (Main), Winther-Jensen, B (Associate).
Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
Investigation of photosimulated conducting polymer heterojunctions exhibiting electrocatalytic properties.
Supervisors:
Macfarlane, D (Joint-co), Winther-Jensen, B (Joint).
Program of Study:
(MASTER'S BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
Light assisted electrolysis of water on dye/conducting polymer composites.
Supervisors:
Winther-Jensen, B (Main), Macfarlane, D (Associate), Ohlin, C (Associate).
Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
Novel conducting Polymer blends for applications in light enhanced electro-catalytic reactions.
Supervisors:
Winther-Jensen, B (Main), Macfarlane, D (Associate).
Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
RFID sensor for partial discharge localization and condition monitoring of high voltage equipment..
Supervisors:
Karmakar, N (Main), Winther-Jensen, B (Associate).
Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
Synthesis of functionalised nanofibres for energy harvesting applications.
Supervisors:
Adeloju, S (Main), Winther-Jensen, B (Associate), Forsythe, J (Associate).
Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
Understanding metal-chelation on ionic liquids for metal/air batteries.
Supervisors:
Macfarlane, D (Joint-co), Winther-Jensen, B (Joint).