Latest Events

A free one-hour tour of the Royce Institute's 12T Wide Bore Magnet Facility in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge.

The wide bore magnet is a 12T solenoid fitted with a VTI with a 100mm usable bore supplied by Oxford Innovative Cryogenic Engineering. Temperature control is possible from 325K to < 2K . The system will have a field homogeneity of 0.05% over a 1cm DSV and 0.5% over a 4cm DSV. The system is entirely cryo-cooler operated with a He gas filled cooling loop. The VTI will operate in static, dynamic and one-shot modes.

This system is intended to facilitate materials characterisation and process development across the full range of Royce areas. While the system is provided with a generic fixed sample probe and a 100 A transport probe technical support will be available to exploit the large internal bore of this magnet by designing custom measurement probes. A wide range of standard laboratory equipment is available in the host laboratory to use in conjunction with this system.

This system is ideal for facilitating developments in processing of mesoscopally ordered materials, superconductors and low loss high permeability materials.

This tour will give an overview of the capabilities of the Wide Bore Magnet Facility as well as information on booking, funding opportunities and the work of the Royce Institute.

For more information about Royce Facilities at Cambridge please contact royce@maxwell.cam.ac.uk and see our full equipment listing at: https://www.maxwell.cam.ac.uk/programmes/henry-royce-institute

Climate change is a topic often at the forefront of discussions across the spectrum of academic subjects and we often hear technology blamed for its negative contributions. But could technology also have a positive role to play? 

In this set of talks we hear from experts in the field of sustainable tech who are working to use the powers of technology and artificial intelligence to improve our understanding of climate change, and maybe help turn the tides for the better.

Harvesting from the Solar Spectrum

Georgie Burgoyne Morris (PhD student at the Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge)

The rapidly emerging climate crisis has highlighted the urgency of developing effective renewable energy sources, of which solar power is a key example. However, many existing solar cells only make efficient use of a small portion of the solar spectrum. The use of spectral converters, either in downshifting high-energy light or upconverting low-energy light, allows the solar spectrum to be tuned to allow more efficient energy harvesting. This talk will explore different types of spectral conversion, and the materials challenges involved in effectively implementing these technologies.

Air Pollution & AI: Understanding the Risks and Impact

Michelle Wan (PhD student at the University of Cambridge)

Air pollution affects both our climate and our health. In this talk, Michelle shares two examples of machine learning methods which can help us better understand pollution risks and their health impacts. In the first example, they use smart algorithms to fill in missing data when air quality monitoring sensors break. In the second example, they combine this environmental data with information about wealth and poverty to predict health outcomes.

Speaker: Professor Krzysztof Matyjaszewski, Professor of Natural Sciences and Director of the Center for Macromolecular Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University

Macromolecular Engineering (ME) is a process comprising the rational design of (co)polymers with specific architecture and functionality, followed by precise and efficient polymer synthesis and processing to prepare advanced materials with target properties. Many advanced nanostructured functional materials were recently designed and prepared by atom transfer radical polymerization employing diverse vinyl monomers. Various gradient, block, periodic copolymers, stars, molecular brushes, hybrid materials, and bioconjugates were prepared with high precision. Special emphasis will be on nanostructured multifunctional hybrid materials for applications related to biology, environment, and energy. 

Profile

We are delighted to host Professor Krzysztof Matyjaszewski for the 2024 Melville Lectureship. Professor Kris Matyjaszewski is the J.C. Warner University Professor of Natural Sciences and director of the Center for Macromolecular Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. In 1994, he discovered Cu-mediated atom transfer radical polymerization, which was commercialized in 2004 in US, Japan and Europe. He has synthesized many advanced materials for biomedical, environmental, and energy-related applications and has co-authored >1,300 publications, (>192,000 citations, h-index 209) and has 69 US patents. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Sciences, European, Australian, Polish, Hungarian, and Georgian Academies of Sciences. He received the 2023 NAS Award in Chemical Sciences, 2021 Grand Prix de la Fondation de la Maison de la Chimie, France, 2017 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Chemistry, 2015 Dreyfus Prize in Chemical Sciences, 2011 Wolf Prize in Chemistry, 2009 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award, and thirteen doctorates honoris causa.
 
Professor Matyjaszewski will be visiting our department for the week of 13 May and delivering two lectures.

Speaker: Dr Liliia Bilous Visiting Fellow, Global Sustainability Institute, Anglia Ruskin University

Cambridge Centre for Environment, Energy, and Natural Resource Governance (CEENRG) in the Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge, invites you to attend its regular seminar series. In 2024 Easter term, our seminars continue in a hybrid format in the DAB— David Attenborough Building every Thursday at 3 pm* (UK time). To join online, please register to receive the Zoom link on the day of the seminar. Everyone is welcome!

Register: CEENRG Seminar Series: 2024 Easter Term Registration Form (office.com)

Our next  Goldsmiths' Seminar on 16 May 2024 will be delivered by Professor Patrick Grant FREng from the University of Oxford on 'Novel manufacturing approaches to improving Li and Na ion batteries'. Please find more details below. See you in person (there will be cake) or on Zoom.

Zoom Meeting ID: 968 3671 4124

https://zoom.us/j/96836714124

Abstract

Since the invention of the Li ion battery more than 30 years ago, there have been steady improvements in performance such as energy and power density. However the most dramatic change has been the reduction in cost per unit energy stored due to manufacturing innovations, which have reduced costs by more than an order of magnitude. While costs continue to reduce, albeit more slowly, battery performance is beginning to stagnate. However, this plateau of performance is disappointingly well-below the intrinsic energy storage performance of the active cathode and anode materials that comprise the Li ion battery. The root of the performance plateau is the ubiquitous method of creating the electrodes, which although highly productive, constrains the range structures and performance that can be achieved. This talk explores novel ways of producing electrodes used in Li ion and Na ion that have structures that allow the intrinsic energy storage capabilities of materials to be realised more fully. For example, we have developed manufacturing techniques that provide extra control on how a polymeric binder distributes during the drying of a slurry cast Li ion battery electrode, how to eliminate organic solvents used in electrode processing, and how to mix optimally different active materials in a single electrode. By improving microstructural control, battery performance is enhanced, and the design space for battery electrode architectures and performance is widened. Because design options are increased, trial and error electrode optimisation by experiment typical of the battery industry becomes impossible. Therefore, the use of modelling and simulation becomes essential, both to understand the electrochemical behaviour of our smart hetero-electrodes and to guide the microstructural design of electrodes for a particular balance of desired properties.

Biography

Patrick Grant is the Vesuvius Professor of Materials and Pro Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Oxford. His research takes place at the interface between advanced materials and manufacturing. Particular applications include electrodes for energy storage, advanced metallics for efficient power generation, and multi-material additive manufacturing. He leads one of the UK Faraday Institution’s major research programmes on smart Li ion electrode manufacture and is the manufacturing lead for the Faraday Institution’s research programme on solid-state batteries. He was head of the Department of Materials (2015-18) and has been Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research since 2018. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2010, was Chair of Rolls-Royce’s Scientific Advisory Committee (2019-22) and is a director of Oxford University Innovation Ltd, Oxford University's technology transfer company.