Abstract
I will introduce battery materials and microwave synthesis broadly, and the work that former graduate student Kira Wyckoff (supported by an lEE Fellowship) and current graduate student Katie Brockmeyer (supported by an lEE research grant) have carried out. Using domestic microwave ovens, we can quickly convert, in a highly energy efficient manner, inexpensive starting materials into highly effective electrode materials for lithium and sodium ion batteries. I will describe some of the challenges associated with these battery materials and the need for on-site manufacturing. I will also address why we need to keep looking for new materials beyond reasons of performance. Finally, I will close with a description of how the microwave methods are being scaled.
Biography
Ram received a PhD in Solid State Chemistry in 1995 from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, working with Professor C. N. R. Rao FRS. After some years as a postdoctoral fellow in France and Germany, he returned to IISc in 1999 as an Assistant Professor. He moved to the Materials Department in the College of Engineering at UC Santa Barbara in 2002. In 2020, he was promoted to the rank of Distinguished Professor in the Materials Department and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. He is also the Fred and Linda R. Wudl Professor of Materials Science, and the Director of the Materials Research Laboratory: A National Science Foundation Materials Research Science and Engineering Center. He recently took on the additional role of Associate Dean for Research in the College of Engineering. His work — embodied in 450 journal publications — broadly addresses the topic of structure-composition-property relations in functional, crystalline inorganic and hybrid materials. Ram is the Editor of Annual Reviews of Materials Research and is a Lead Editor of Physical Review Materials.