Conference

Prof Paul Shearing is the Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Battery Technologies for Next Generation Energy Storage, based in Dept. Chemical Engineering at University College London. He is a co-director of the Electrochemical Innovation Lab and from 2012-16 he was a holder of a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowship.

His research interests cover a broad range of electrochemical engineering themes with a particular interest in the relationship between performance and microstructure for energy materials: an area in which he has published more than 190 papers.

He is a pioneer of ‘4-D Tomography’ and has used most of the world\'s major synchrotron light sources; at UCL he has established a leading facility for multi-scale X-ray imaging.

He leads the UK’s STFC Global Challenge Network in Batteries and Electrochemical Devices, which brings together leading international researchers from industry and academia.

In 2006 he graduated from Birmingham with the top first in Chemical Engineering, and in 2009 he took a PhD from Imperial College. He is the recipient of the Salter’s Graduate Prize and the Janet Watson memorial prize for research excellence. In 2014 he was named the Institute of Chemical Engineers, Young Chemical Engineer of the Year in Academia and in 2016 the RAEng Engineers Trust Young Engineer of the Year.

Prof. Mauro Pasta is an associate professor in the Department of Materials at the University of Oxford and a fellow at St. Edmund Hall. Currently, he is leading the SOLBAT (solid-state metal anode batteries) project within the Faraday Institution, the UK’s independent institute for electrochemical energy storage science and technology. Previously, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Materials Science & Engineering department at Stanford University working on batteries for grid-scale energy storage. He co-founded two startup companies, Cuberg (2015), developing batteries for high temperature applications and Alveo Energy, now Natron Energy (2012), developing a high power, long cycle life, low-cost battery technology for industrial applications. He received his PhD, MSc, BSc in Industrial Chemistry from the University of Milan (Italy). His research focuses on the electrochemistry and materials science of energy storage and conversion devices, with focus on technologies beyond Li-ion batteries. He published 40 papers, one book chapter, 4 patents and 5 pending patent applications. According to Google Scholar, he has been cited over 6950 times and his H-factor is 28.

SOLBAT: the Solid-State Metal-Anode Battery project within the Faraday Institution

Attempts to realize an all solid-state battery have been made for several decades without success. Traditionally the focus has been on the conductivity of the solid electrolyte but in truth this is the least important challenge. The barriers to achieving an all solid-state battery lie with the interfaces between the electrolyte and the two electrodes, the mechanical properties of the solid electrolyte, and in how devices might ultimately be fabricated. Simply using traditional approaches or attempting to fabricate new devices will not deliver success. The SOLBAT project within the Faraday Institution, the UK’s independent institute for electrochemical energy storage science and technology, aims at understanding the fundamental science underpinning the manifold scientific and technological impediments to the practical development of solid-state batteries. We identified four main areas of study: anode interfaces, cathode interfaces, electrolyte discovery, and cell fabrication. In my presentation, I will summarize the scientific highlights from the first year of the SOLBAT project and the overall scientific direction.

Richard Clark, Global Lead, Energy Storage at Morgan Advanced Materials

A chemical engineer by education, Richard Clark is the Global Lead for Energy Storage at Morgan Advanced Materials, (LSE: MGAM), a leading global carbon and ceramics manufacturer which has been directly involved in the lithium-ion battery industry since 2000. Richard has worked on many of Morgan’s recent technological developments in carbon and ceramics, including anode materials, separators and thermal runaway propagation prevention and mitigation systems for lithium ion-batteries. Morgan’s latest development in the lithium-ion space is in the area of solid state electrolytes for which several patent applications are in process, with Richard leading business development activities as well as being a named co-inventor. He has been based in England, Korea, China and currently U.S.A.

Dr. Michael Badding is a Senior Research Associate, Crystalline Materials Research at Corning Incorporated. Dr. Badding is the technical leader of Corning’s Ribbon Ceramics program with twenty-seven years of industrial research experience in the field of ceramic materials and processing with a focus on thin, flexible ceramics and their applications. Prior to joining Corning in 1997, he held positions at AT&T Bell Laboratories and Sage Electrochromics. He graduated from Cornell University with a PhD in Solid State Chemistry and holds thirty-six patents and has authored over thirty publications.

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Biography

A geochemist by training with a BSc from Manchester University and a PhD from Sheffield University.  He joined Ceram Research, which subsequently become Lucideon, nearly 30 years ago to run to microstructure department.  His role was mainly centred upon industrial problem solving for ceramic failures and production issues, mainly using microstructures.  He progressed to become Head of Testing with responsibility for all the testing laboratories.  Two years ago he became Principal Consultant for Materials.

He is still heavily engaged in solving material challenges, analytical and production problems.  He sits on a range of standardisation bodies for refractories, ceramic tableware, construction materials and ceramics for medical devices.  He has worked extensively with the Tableware industry on food contact materials, particularly with the current European Commission’s proposals.   He is a Chartered scientist, a Fellow of IoM3 and a Member of the Institute of Refractory engineers.

So what have we made? A testing overview

Ceramics are used to fulfil an extremely broad range of requirements across a spectrum of industries from our table tops to some of the most performance critical and regulatory driven applications.  Clearly, the need for and range of compliance testing is equally diverse.

The talk will look across a spectrum of material types and examples to show how testing requirements can be built up as a sequence of steps to characterise ceramics and their performance.  We will cover chemical and mineralogical analysis, physical properties, microstructures and performance characterisation.  The aim is to understand materials, assess their fitness for use and understand if they are as good as they could be.

Dr. Alisa Stratulat

Alisa holds a BS degree in Engineering from Smith College (USA) and a PhD in Materials Science from University of Oxford (UK). Her BS thesis focused on the chemical vapor deposition synthesis and characterization of novel carbon compounds.  While a student in the USA, she gained experience on working with different materials during several research projects conducted at universities such as Princeton University or Clemson University. She then moved to University of Oxford (UK), where her PhD work was focused on the study of stress corrosion cracking of stainless steels and Ni alloys using micromechanical testing.

Prior to joining ZEISS as an Applications Development Engineer on Advanced Materials, Alisa was a Senior Research Scientist in the Sensors and Wireless R&D Lab at Honeywell, where she developed and improved sensing materials through synthesis and characterization. Alisa is the author and co-author of several publications, US granted patents and applications in the field of materials science (polymers, ceramics, metals and building materials). In her current role, Alisa develops microscopy and analysis applications for industrial research of advanced materials.

She is an active supporter of diversity in STEM, she loves interacting with people from different cultures and she is interested in improving access to education and youth empowerment.

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Facilitating and supporting research in alignment with Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF), including platforms development to facilitate industry access to research facilities.

Committed to Science dissemination and events organization relevant to the UK Ceramic community.

Dr Rowena Brugge

Research Associate, Department of Materials, Imperial College London

Dr Rowena Brugge is a post-doctoral research associate in the Department of Materials at Imperial College London, investigating the properties of solid-state lithium ion battery materials for next generation energy storage. Her current research interests include the development and understanding of novel materials and interfaces in an all-solid-state battery framework, probing the transport and chemical properties, working in the Aguadero Research Group. She is also developing isotope tracer experiments and modelling methods for probing lithium diffusion in battery materials, with Dr Sam Cooper in the Dyson School of Design Engineering, as part of the Multiscale Modelling Fast Start Project funded by the Faraday Institution.

Prior to working as a research associate, Rowena obtained her MChem (Hons) from the University of Oxford, and her PhD on garnet-type ceramic electrolytes for solid state lithium batteries at Imperial College London.

Presentation title: Ionic transport in garnet electrolytes: driving the performance of solid state batteries

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“All-solid-state” is the safe and promising system of choice as the next generation of metal ion-based batteries. Ceramic garnet-type electrolytes have a large electrochemical and chemical stability, with high ionic conductivities required for successful implementation in high energy density lithium batteries. This work follows electrochemical performance and degradation in these systems, using a range of surface analysis techniques.

Job Title: Research Engineer in Additive Manufacturing

Organisation: MTC

Biography: William joined Loughborough University in 2011 for Bachelor’s degree in Materials Engineering. He remained at Loughborough to undertake a PhD in Ceramic Additive Manufacturing, having recently completed it and joined the Manufacturing Technology Centre to work further on Ceramic Additive Manufacturing.

Talk title: Additive manufacturing of advanced ceramics for demanding applications

Abstract: This PhD project deals with the investigation of the fabrication of a PTC ceramic heating element. The aim is to potentially replace one or more conventional component manufacturing methods with additive manufacturing techniques. A number of techniques were used to characterise the material and heater components along the processing stages.

Bio: 

Wirat received his first degree in Ceramics whilst studying in Thailand and has recently finished his PhD in Ceramics and Glasses, specialising in field assisted sintering of whitewares, from the Imperial College in London. His PhD works were performed in collaborations with Queen Mary University of London, University of Oxford and Polytechnic University of Valencia. Wirat also holds an MSc in porcelain processing from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, USA. Prior to joining Lucideon, Wirat spent 12 years in various sectors such as, ceramic raw materials – Torrecid SA (Spain), Float glass – Guardian Industry Corp (Thailand), as well as sanitarywares/tile manufacturers – SCG (Thailand). Wirat also has a strong passion in ceramics for humanitarianism.

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Safe and clean drinking water is a basic necessity of life but most of us living in developed countries may have difficulty to find one. Having a chance to visit Uganda, to work with a charity aiming to provide safe and clean drinking water for the Ugandan. Working on improvements of ceramic filters production line with a lack of resources is very challenging. However, when academia and imagination join in the real world, magical solutions can result!

Job Title: Ceramic Wasteform Researcher

Company: The National Nuclear Laboratory

Biography: Stephanie has a background in Materials Science and has a doctorate in the development of ceramic wasteforms for nuclear waste disposal. Her PhD developed zirconolite (CaZrTi₂O₇) ceramics and glass-ceramics for the immobilisation of PuO₂ in the UK. Stephanie developed glass-ceramic formulations that optimised phase development and waste incorporation, and embarked on a 4 month research placement at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) to make uranium and plutonium active samples. As well as wasteform development Stephanie’s research was focused around the utilisation of thermal treatment technology Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIPing) as a potential route for treating the UK’s civil PuO₂ stockpile material. HIP uses high temperature and pressure to consolidate dense, durable materials for long-term storage and future disposal. Stephanie has presented her PhD research at multiple national and international conferences resulting in a number of peer-reviewed publications. Stephanie has received multiple awards for her research including the national award for best presentation at The UK Ceramics Chapter (ACerS) 2018; the Longenecker & Associates award at Waste Management symposium 2016; Roy G post Scholarship 2016; Nuclear Decommissioning Authority best presentation award 2015 and industrially sponsored best poster presentation 2015. Stephanie is now working at The National Nuclear Laboratory as a leading member of the thermal treatment technical team, continuing to build on her research developing ceramic wasteforms and the HIP technology for treatment of the UK’s civil PuO₂ stockpile material.