Robert House: RAEng Research Fellow

Very many congratulations to Dr Robert House on his Research Fellowship with the Royal Academy of Engineering.

The development of the lithium-ion battery has ushered in a revolution in portable electronic devices and they are now seen as the energy storage technology of choice to enable the transition from the internal combustion energy to all-electric vehicles, and from gas and coal electricity generation to renewables.  Despite the indisputable successes of the Li-ion battery, however, there are growing concerns about the financial and environmental costs of this technology, particularly surrounding the sourcing of critically constrained elements Li, Ni and Co, upon which state-of-the-art Li-ion batteries are heavily dependent.

Over the course of his RAEng Research Fellowship, Dr House will be investigating new battery chemistries based on earth-abundant elements such as Na, Mn, Mg and Fe which offer more sustainable alternatives.  His research will focus on synthesising and studying the behaviour of new cathode materials which exploit structural disorder to achieve fast ion-conduction and high capacities for the next generation of rechargeable battery.