Biography

• Fellow of the Society of Glass Technology since 2000: since 1999, Editor of “Physics and Chemistry of Glasses”: European Journal of Glass Science and Technology, Part B .
   
• Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2002 and in the same year awarded a Research Prize by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to become Project Leader within Sonderforschungsbereich 458 and Visiting Professor at the University of Münster.
   
• Interests include electrochemical energy storage, and the historical aspects of glass science and its impact on society and the environment.

Research Overview

Physical Chemistry of Glasses

Ion Transport Processes

Much research today is concerned with ion transport across a wide range of materials including glasses, molten salts and polymer electrolytes. Optimising ion mobilities in these materials is vital for the development of new electrochemical power sources (including advanced batteries and super-capacitors for use in electrical vehicles or laptop computers), while there is a compelling need for reducing ion mobility in glasses used as electrical insulators or indeed in the storage of nuclear wastes.

My own research is focused on identifying the microscopic mechanisms of ion transport (see the graphic) using a variety of techniques, including:

• variable-pressure, variable temperature (VPVT) impedance spectroscopy (IS)
   
• high-pressure differential scanning calorimetry (HPDSC)
   
• VPVT radioactive tracer studies of cation diffusion, with Profs. K Funke and H. Mehrer, Univ. of Münster, Germany
   
• positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy (PALS), with Dr.A.J. Hill, CSIRO, Melbourne, Australia

Economic and environmental factors drive this research forward. These include the need to find ways of storing electricity generated by wind farms, where huge currents are involved, and to find reliable replacements for nickel-cadmium and lead-acid storage batteries, whose disposal is clearly problematic. Our strategy is to focus on basic science and to identify the barriers to ion motion in new materials, which include brittle glasses, rubbery polymers and spongy gels. We report (references 5 and 10) a new equation, EA = M.VA, which enables us to calculate the heights of the above-mentioned barriers in a wide range of materials.