To deliver the next generation of battery technologies a concerted materials design effort across length scales combining computation, experiment and engineering is required. In this symposium, we invite contributions on topics ranging across atomic scale modelling and experimental synthesis of battery materials; from the isolated bulk materials and interfaces, to device fabrication and modelling. Applications of advanced in situ characterisation, cutting edge synthesis methods, and novel device configurations are welcomed. Finally, contributions containing a firm focus on circularity and sustainability in battery design and how this should be incorporated into the design process are invited.
- Novel materials for lithium and post-lithium ion batteries
- Novel battery technologies and device configurations
- Electrode fabrication
- Novel electrolytes
- Sustainable practice in battery fabrication
- Battery modelling from DFT to continuum scale
- Recycling challenges
- Designing for circularity
- Advanced characterisation
Heather is a Royal Society University Research Fellow in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London.
She obtained her PhD in 2017 from Imperial College developing covalent modification strategies on carbon nanomaterials. She was a postdoctoral research associate at Queen Mary University of London and Imperial College, where her research interests shifted to investigating charge storage mechanisms in sodium-ion battery anodes, and later a Faraday Institution Research Fellow, working on the development of engineered carbon hosts for sulfur cathodes in lithium-sulfur batteries.
Heather was awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship in 2023, allowing her to establish an independent research team exploring sustainable materials for structural energy storage.
Saiful Islam is Professor of Materials Science at the University of Oxford. He grew up in London and obtained his Chemistry degree and PhD from University College London. He then worked at the Eastman Kodak Labs, New York, and the Universities of Surrey and Bath.
His current research focuses on understanding atomistic and nano-scale processes in perovskite halides for solar cells, and in new materials for lithium batteries. Saiful has received several awards including the 2022 Royal Society Hughes Medal and 2020 American Chemical Society Award in Energy Chemistry. He presented the 2016 BBC Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on the theme of energy and is a Patron of Humanists UK.
Wei Yu received his Ph.D. in material science and engineering from Tsinghua University in 2018 with Prof. Feiyu Kang. He then did his postdoctoral research for two years with Prof. Ce-Wen Nan, also at Tsinghua University. In November 2020, he joined Prof. Hirotomo Nishihara’s group at Tohoku University as a specially appointed assistant professor and was promoted to assistant professor in April 2023. His research interests include the development of high-performance electrodes/electrolytes and the design of in situ battery characterization systems for advanced batteries.