Professor Joe Shapter

The Shapter group explores ways to make novel nanomaterials and then apply them in areas such as photovoltaics, catalysts or sensors.

​Our group is working generally in the area of nanomaterials using various techniques to make new materials, make materials more efficiently and to combine these materials to enhance properties.  With these materials in hand, our team works to incorporate them into a variety of devices or applications.  We have made solar cells with various architectures including dye-sensitised cells, CNT-Si cells and perovskite cell.  Our materials have also been used to make electrochemical sensors as well as electrodes for photocatalysis.

Joe Shapter obtained his Ph. D. from the University of Toronto in 1990 working with Prof. J. C. Polanyi on the detection of small molecules and the determination of their energies.  From 1990 to 1996, he worked at the University of Western Ontario (London, Ontario) building a scanning tunnelling microscope and lecturing first year chemistry.  In 1996, he moved to Flinders, became Professor of Nanotechnology, and was Dean of the School of Chemical and Physical Sciences until the end of 2016.  He was the founding Director of the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) funded Centre of Expertise in Energetic Materials (CEEM) and was the Director of the South Australian node of the Australian Microscopy and Microanalysis Facility (AMMRF).   In 2018, Prof. Shapter moved to UQ to take up the role of Pro Vice Chancellor (Research Infrastructure).

Industry Engagement

​Dyesol working on Counter Electrodes in Perovskite Cells

Australian Wine Research Instutue working on Sulphite Sensors

Collaborations

​Prof. Mike Ford, UTS

Prof. David Winkler, LaTrobe,

Prof. Shashank Priya, Penn State

Prof. Rod Ruoff, UNIST, Korea

Prof. Shizhang Qiao, University of Adelaide

Key Publications

​Munkhbayar Batmunkh, Aabhash Shrestha, Munkhjargal Bat-Erdene, Md. Julker Nine, Cameron James Shearer, Christopher Gibson, Ashley Slattery, Sherif Tawfik, Michael Ford, Sheng Dai, Shizhang Qiao and Joseph George Shapter ""Electrocatalytic Activity of 2D Phosphorene Based Heteroelectrocatalyst for Photoelectrochemical Cells" Angewandte Chemie (accepted January 17, 2018). 

Munkhjargal Bat-Erdene, Munkhbayar Batmunkh, Sherif Abdulkader Tawfik, Marco Fronzi, Michael J. Ford, Cameron J. Shearer, LePing Yu, Mahnaz Dadkhah, Jason R. Gascooke, Christopher T. Gibson and Joseph G. Shapter "Efficiency Enhancement of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube-Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells Using Microwave-Exfoliated Few-Layer Black Phosphorus" Advanced Functional Materials 27 1704488 (2017)

Munkhbayar Batmunkh, Munkhjargal Bat-Erdene, and Joseph G. Shapter “Black Phosphorus: Synthesis and Application for Solar Cells” Advanced Energy Materials 8 1701832 (2018)

Aabhash Shrestha, Munkhbayar Batmunkh, Cameron J. Shearer, Yanting Yin, Gunther G. Andersson, Joseph G. Shapter, Shizhang Qiao and Sheng Dai "Nitrogen-doped CNx/CNTs Hetero-Electrocatalysts for Highly Efficient Dye-sensitized Solar Cells" Advanced Energy Materials 7 1602276 (2017)

LePing Yu, Cameron Shearer and Joseph Shapter "Recent Development of Carbon Nanotube Transparent Conductive Films" Chemical Reviews 116 13413−13453 (2016).

Full list of publications available on espace

Funding​

Total Grant Funding (2005-2017): $ 23.7 M