New materials for sustainable development
Development of new materials that provide better performance and that can replace environmentally hazardous substances and critical elements.
Our research within sustainable development
The change towards a more sustainable society, using renewable energy with no or a very low carbon dioxide foot-print, is a critical challenge human kind must meet. This requires not only new technical solutions, but also the development of new materials.
For example, we need materials which can give better performing and longer lasting fuel cells, or improved capabilities to store energy in e.g. batteries or as hydrogen in alloys. Essential for the materials that will meet this challenge is also that they consist of abundant elements, so that the developed technology can be implemented in a large scale. Thus, replacement of critical elements, which are detrimental for the environment or too expensive for practical use, is also an essential goal of this research.
Metal Hydrides for compression and storage
Hydrogen is special compared to other energy storage technologies in that it can fill roles in almost all aspects of the modern energy system so tailoring new metal hydrides is a true scientific challenge of high societal importance. We explore novel high entropy alloys and hydrides for application in systems for hydrogen production, compression and storage.
Magnetic materials for sustainable energy conversion
Magnetic materials are a vital component in energy generation and conversion in modern day society. The most powerful magnets currently available are based on rare-earth elements (REE), which are a contested resource that is expensive to extract, both in terms of money and the environmental impact. As an alternative, REE mineral compositions can be utilised directly to obtain powerful magnetic materials via small chemical alterations, thus eliminating the most polluting step in the REE extraction. We will utilise Swedish ores to create powerful magnetic materials for energy conversion and develop structures optimised for the targeted applications.
Contact
- If you have questions about our research, you are welcome to contact the programme professor, Professor Martin Sahlberg.
- Prof. Martin Sahlberg