Laboratory for Strategic Materials

The research group for the Laboratory for Strategic Materials takes a combined theoretical and experimental approach to address the world’s major challenges, including growing demand for natural resources (mainly energy materials) and anthropogenic environmental impacts, through enhancement of existing processes and development of new materials and production routes in various industrial sectors: energy, water, and metals. Their research lies at the intersection of process engineering, electrochemistry, and materials science. The research combines fundamental science and engineering principals to arrive at solutions for real world applications. 

The first mission of their research program is to develop innovative hydrometallurgical, supercritical, and electrochemical processes for extraction and recycling of strategic materials including rare earth elements (REEs), platinum group metals (PGMs), lithium, and iron. The second mission is to develop game-changing processes and devices (e.g., batteries) to address the sustainability challenges in terms of energy, environment, and materials criticality. The third mission is to design and fabricate advanced materials with controlled properties including hydrophobicity (non-wetting), scale-resistivity, transparency, and electrical properties.