MS&E Seminar: Keith J. Stevenson

Stevenson

Keith J. Stevenson

Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology,

Department of Chemistry

University of Texas, Austin

 

 

 

 

 

Advanced Materials for Energy Conversion and Storage: Challenges and Opportunities

The development of advanced materials and technologies to efficiently convert and store energy directly into electricity is of urgent importance due to increasing energy demands of an ever growing world population and the growing need to diversify to renewable energy alternatives. However, tremendous scientific challenges re-main before successful implementation of any number of competing energy technologies such as solar cells, fuel cells, and batteries can be adopted. The materials, interfaces and device architectures currently being explored are very challenging to interrogate by ensemble-averaging, bulk experimental methods since they do not exhibit long-range order or homogeneity, contain unique nano-morphological features and possess non-uniform chemi-cal compositions and defect chemistry. Additionally, these materials and interfaces are dynamically “reactive” and their performance degrades significantly during use which limits their cycle life and their ultimate commer-cialization prospects. This presentation will summarize a few materials design strategies for optimizing the per-formance of redox-active materials used in electrochemical energy conversion and storage applications. The de-velopment of high resolution spatially resolved tools for studying charge transfer processes at electrochemical interfaces will also be highlighted. Information obtained from these new tools enables the elucidation of com-plex electron and ion transfer mechanisms and degradation processes in existing and emerging materials consid-ered for advanced electrochemical energy conversion and storage applications

Biography:

Professor Stevenson received his Ph.D. in 1997 from the University of Utah under the supervision of Professor Henry White. Subsequently, he held a postdoctoral appointment at Northwestern University (1997-2000); and a professorial appointment since 2000 at the University of Texas at Austin. Recently, he has served as a scientific thrust leader in Electrochemical Energy Storage on a $15M Department of Energy Frontier Research Center, Di-rector of the $38M Center for Nano- and Molecular Science and Technology (CNM), and on the steering board for the Texas Materials Institute (TMI). Stevenson’s research interests are aimed at elucidating and controlling chem-istry at solid/liquid interfaces vital to many emerging energy storage and energy conversion technologies. To date he has published over 160 peer-reviewed publications, five patents, and six book chapters in this field. He is a recipient of a NSF CAREER award (2002), the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools New Scholar Award (2004), the Society of Electroanalytical Chemistry Young Investigator Award (2006), and Kavli Fellow (2012). Keith is a member of the American Chemical Society, Electrochemical Society, Society for Electroanalytical Chemistry, and the Materials Research Society.

 

 

Date/Time:
Date(s) - Jan 15, 2016
10:30 am - 12:00 pm

Location:
2101 Engineering V
420 Westwood Plaza Los Angeles CA 90095