Materials development is at the foundation of meeting our future energy needs. From designing new oil fields based on materials properties of the Earth's crust to tailoring nanocatalysts to resist coarsening during fuel cell operation, materials understanding and development is driving energy technologies in almost every arena. The department of Materials Science and Engineering at UW is at the forefront of a wide array of energy technologies, including materials challenges in oil, coal, automotive efficiency, fuel cells, solar cells, batteries, and nuclear reactors. Below are some of the energy related research activities in the MS&E department. Please follow the links to learn more about each faculty member and get contact information.

Paul Evans: Research in the Evans research group focuses on materials growth and x-ray characterization techniques for emerging materials. Research directions include developing organic semiconductor thin films and organic interfaces for large-area electronic devices that can be fabricated at low-temperature. This technology may have an important role in low cost photovoltaics, sensors, and low-power electronics.

Padma Gopalan: My work is in the area of synthesis of functional organic nanomaterials materials for photonic components, functionalization of carbon nanotubes to create photodetectors and exploiting self-assembly of block copolymers to guide organization of nanoparticles for high density data storage applications. Polymeric materials offer greater compositional flexibility, lower dielectric constants, easy processability, higher electro-optic coefficients and cost effectiveness than conventional inorganic crystals such as lithium niobate. In integrated optical applications, these advantages can translate into devices with lower drive voltages and higher bandwidths. These functional polymeric materials can also be used as membranes for solar cells and active materials for photovoltaics.

Bezalel Haimson: My research is closely related to the exploitation of energy resources such as oil, gas, and coal. My group has continuously worked on developing new techniques and enhancing existing methods of determining the state of stress in the Earth's crust, which is a major “material property” required in the rational design of new oil fields or coal mines. We are also studying experimentally the newly discovered geologic structure called “compaction band”. Such bands occur in some granular materials as a result of a yet little understood localized deformation, creating thin tabular layers of compacted grains within porous sandstones (typical oil bearing strata), that can disrupt the continuing flow of oil in a natural reservoir due to their very low porosity.

Eric Hellstrom: Research in Hellstrom and Morgan's groups combine experimental and computational approaches to synthesize and study a new generation of solid electrolytes for the intermediate-temperature solid-oxide fuel cells (IT-SOFC). These studies are based on compounds that have the brownmillerite structure — barium indium oxide (Ba₂In₂O₅, or BIO) — whose room temperature structure is closely related to perovskite. However, in BIO, 1/6 of the oxygen sites are vacant, and they are ordered in the material. On heating the material goes through phase transformations, becoming a cubic perovskite that retains the large number of oxygen vacancies. The cubic structure has high oxygen conductivity. BIO can be doped on the Ba and In sites, stabilizing the high-conductivity structure to room temperature. Due to the enormous range of iso- and aliovalent doping on the single- or multi-cation sites, BIO has the capability to become an outstanding ionic, electronic or even a mixed conductor. Pure and doped BIO can be made by various techniques including solid sate reaction and the Pechini method (glycine-nitrate). We believe the computational studies will help us understand the short and long range interactions and ordering that occurs between vacancies and the host and dopant ions. This will lead to new doping schemes that will increase the ionic conductivity.

Y. Austin Chang and Sindo Kou: We have a joint project focused on improving fuel efficiency through design of new light-weight magnesium structural alloys. Currently, global efforts are focusing on the development and commercialization of new high temperature magnesium alloys for automotive engine and transmission components, where the potential for significant mass reduction exists. Magnesium alloys have the lowest density among all structural alloys and possess high specific strength, but new alloys must be developed for use in the service temperature range of 150-250°C. Identification of new alloying approaches to provide strengthening and stability at these temperatures, within the constraints of casting processes that are viable for automotive-scale production, remains a critical materials challenge. The relative lack of fundamental understanding of the behavior of potential high temperature magnesium alloys systems, compared to that for other structural alloy systems, has been identified as a critical obstacle to significant progress in the search for new lightweight, high temperature magnesium systems. We are addressing this challenge with an extensive program, in collaboration with the University of Michigan, Ford, and GM.

Max Lagally (and Mark Eriksson, Physics): I work with Mark Eriksson in physics to develop photovoltaic devices (solar cells) based on carbon nanotubes. The work has already led to a patent application and there is interest from two groups in developing the ideas commercially.

Dane Morgan: My work uses quantum mechanical and electrochemical transport modeling tools to design materials for alternative energy technologies from the atomic scale. Areas of focus include Li-ion battery cathodes, PEM fuel cell electrode catalysts, solid oxide fuel cell electrolytes, and radiation resistant steels and nanocrystalline ceramics for nuclear applications.

John Perepezko: My work on the analysis and modeling of alloy solidification emphasizes the microstructural evolution that is dominated by nucleation-controlled kinetics. One aspect of this focus is our work on amorphous alloys where an understanding of glass formation and primary crystallization reactions has allowed for the synthesis of bulk volumes of either nanostructured or amorphous phases. The nanostructured alloys offer exceptional strength of up to 1300MPa for Al-base systems with specific strength levels that are about three times those for structural steels. With further development, there can be many applications in energy savings for transportation applications. Further for Fe-base systems the nanostructured alloys provide superior performance as both hard and soft magnetic materials for use in motors and transformers. We have extended the analysis of nucleation control to interface reactions and have developed a kinetic bias concept that provides an effective means to control the reaction pathway in contact metallizations for electronic and photovoltaic materials. With the kinetic bias strategy we have generated diffusion barrier and oxidation resistant coatings that extend the lifetime and operating temperatures of materials that must function in the high temperature aggressive environments that are involved in energy production. In another area we have developed the fundamental understanding of phase stability in ultra high temperature Mo-Si-B alloys and have applied this understanding to achieve tailored microstructures and alloy designs for structural applications in gas turbines and heat exchangers.

Donald Stone: My work is in the area of mechanical properties. I characterize and model high-temperature creep, creep-fatigue interactions, and interaction with temperature, radiation damage, and mechanical properties in thin films (using nanoindentation). These studies have relevance for mechanical properties of nuclear reactor materials.

Izabela Szlufarska: My work uses multi-million atom molecular dynamics techniques to develop nanoscale ceramics with advanced mechanical properties. Areas of interest include ultrahard coatings and novel nanoengineered radiation resistant ceramics for nuclear and fusion reactors.