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From Batteries to Solar Cells: Exploring Energy Materials on the Atomic Scale

Further breakthroughs in materials for low carbon energy applications require advances in new compositions and underpinning materials science.

Indeed, a greater fundamental understanding into new materials for lithium batteries and solar cells require atomic-scale characterization of their structural, electronic and transport behaviour. In this context, a combination of materials modelling and experimental work is now a powerful approach for investigating these properties on the atomic scale.

This presentation will describe such studies in two principal areas: (i) redox chemistry of lithium-rich cathodes for lithium-ion batteries; and (ii) ion migration and molecular passivation effects in metal-halide perovskites for solar cells.

Bio:

Saiful Islam is Professor of Materials Science at the University of Oxford, UK. He grew up in London and obtained his Chemistry degree and PhD from University College London followed by positions at the Eastman Kodak Labs, New York, USA, and the Universities of Surrey and Bath.

His research encompasses atomic- and nano-scale processes in new materials for lithium- and sodium-ion batteries, and for perovskite solar cells. He leads the Faraday Institution CATMAT project on lithium cathode materials and has received awards from the Royal Society, American Chemical Society, Royal Society of Chemistry.

Saiful presented the 2016 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures for BBC TV on the theme of energy, which included a lemon battery world record. He is a Patron of Humanists UK and when not exploring energy materials, he enjoys family breaks (as a dad of two), films and indie music.

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Catalytic Approaches to CO2 Hydrogenation for Carbon Natural Energy Solutions

Limiting global warming will require major transitions in the energy sector. This will require a substantial reduction in fossil fuel use, widespread electrification, and use of alternative fuels. Catalytic technologies will play a key role in this transition.

This seminar will discuss the rationale designs of catalyst and appropriate reaction processing technologies that are applied in biofuel production and low carbon CO₂ reduction. CO₂ is thermodynamically stable that makes it difficult to react under mild conditions. Various methodologies have been investigated for converting CO₂ into chemicals, including photocatalysis and electrochemical approaches.

Non-thermal plasma (NTP) also known as cold plasma, comprises electrons, neutrals, electronically and vibrationally excited species, ions, radicals, and atoms. When these charged particles interact with chemicals, they can act as catalysts, facilitating reactions such as bond dissociation or formation to occur at lower temperatures and under milder conditions compared to chemical processes currently employed in commercial applications.

The objective of this study is to showcase the practical implementation of an NTP system for converting CO2 into valuable chemicals.

Bio

Professor Zheng is a professor and a Canada Research Chair (Tier I) in Chemical Reaction and Intensification with the Department of Chemical Engineering, Western University. Dr. Zheng is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and the Engineering Institute of Canada. She is also a Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada CIC, the Royal Society of chemistry (UK), the Institution of Chemical Engineers (UK) and the Global Academy of Chinese Chemical Engineers.

Her research interests lie in the field of catalysis and catalytic processes for clean energy innovations. New catalytic materials along with catalytic processes are developed for application in CO₂ utilization, N₂ fixation, H₂ production and clean/biofuel upgrading.

She has published more than 220+ referred journal papers in top-tiered journals in addition to 10 patented technologies with three have been licensed. She has consistently been recognized as one of the Top 2% Scientists worldwide in the Stanford University Analysis from 2019 to 2023. She has received numerous awards, including the 2018 Applied Catalysis Awards (the Royal Society of Chemistry, UK), the Award in Design and Industrial Practice in 2018, and the 2010 Syncrude Canada Innovation Award from CIC.

Rock bed thermal energy storage

Professor Jaap Hoffmann of Stellenbosch University

Friday, July 19, 2024, 1:30-3:00 pm

Trottier Building – Room 2110

Abstract:ÌýPacked beds offer an inexpensive and versatile way of storing solar heat for power generation and process heat applications. In large systems, the flow through the packed bed will be three-dimensional, and conventional plug flow methods are inadequate to design and/or evaluate thermal energy storage systems (TES).

At Stellenbosch, research into 3D TES systems has been ongoing for the last decade, using a combination of CFD and experiments. In this seminar, the prediction of pressure drop and heat transfer in TES based on particle Reynolds number, particle orientation and shape parameters, and flow tortuosity is presented.

Bio: Jaap Hoffmann is an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical & Mechatronic Engineering at Stellenbosch University. He did his Ph.D. on performance prediction on natural draft cooling towers under the influence of atmospheric temperature inversions.

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