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Professor Michl鈥檚 group works in physical organic chemistry, a combination of synthesis of organic and organometallic (both main group and transition metal) compounds with an investigation of their properties by physical, mechanistic, and computational methods. This ranges from photochemical reactions to nanoscience. In addition to his group in Boulder, Professor Michl has a research group at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, Czech Republic, and many group members spend some time in each place. Some of the research themes are similar (molecular rotors), others are different (alkylation of gold surface; see ).
The areas of most interest at this time are (i) Photochemistry and photophysics of singlet fission for higher efficiency solar cells, (ii) Synthesis and properties of porphene, a new two-dimensional conjugated polymer similar to graphene but containing fused porphyrin or metalloporphyrin instead of benzene rings, (iii) Surface-mounted molecular rotors intended for use in nanoelectronics, (iv) Theoretical chemistry applications in support of activities in areas (i) - (iii).