NEMESIS:Novel Energy Materials: Engineering Science and Integrated Systems

The aim of NEMESIS is to establish a world leading research center in ferroelectric and piezoelectric materials for energy harvesting and energy generation. I will deliver cutting edge multi-disciplinary research encompassing materials, physics, chemistry and electrical engineering and develop ground breaking materials and structures for energy creation. The internationally leading research center will be dedicated to developing new and innovative solutions to generating and harvesting energy using novel materials at the macro- to nano-scale.

Key challenges and novel technical approaches are:

1. To create energy harvesting nano-generators to convert vibrations into electrical energy in hostile environments (e.g. wireless sensors in near engine applications).

2. To enable broadband energy harvesting to generate electrical energy from ambient vibrations which generally exhibit multiple time-dependent frequencies.

3. To produce Curie-temperature tuned nano-structured pyroelectrics to optimise the electrical energy scavenged from temperature fluctuations. To further enhance the energy generation I aim to couple thermal expansion and pyroelectric effects to produce a new class of thermal energy harvesting materials and systems.

4. To create nano-structured ferroelectric and piezoelectric materials for novel water-splitting applications. Two approaches will be considered, the use of the internal electrical fields present in ferroelectrics to prevent recombination of photo-excited electron-hole pairs and the electric charge generated on mechanically stressed piezoelectric nano-rods which convert water to hydrogen and oxygen.