ChE Seminar Series Presents: Joshua Gallaway

Joshua Gallaway, Ph.D.

DiPietro Assistant Professor

Department of Chemical Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA

“Next Generation for the Grid”

Abstract: In our lab, we study mechanisms within complex electrochemical systems. Practical electrochemical systems such as batteries, sensors, and fuel cells are often complex, involving engineered high surface area electrodes, starved electrolyte conditions, phase transformations, and interplay of the two electrodes. For these reasons, there are significant deviations from ideal behavior as well as emergent or unexpected phenomena. We seek to understand these to engineer better devices for broad societal benefit, such as the worldwide adoption of sustainable energy. We have developed strategies for coupling electrochemical methods with materials synthesis, theory, and operando analysis techniques, often based on high energy X-rays. This allows distributed and localized phenomena to be observed within operating electrochemical cells, and fundamental mechanistic information to be extracted from within the complex system. Thus we have a laboratory equipped for modern electroanalytical study and also make use of specialized X-ray sources maintained by the US Department of Energy. Recent research has focused on low-cost and safe battery materials for electrical storage at the scale of the power grid. Intermittent renewables like solar and wind power will succeed if excess electricity can be stored safely without adding significantly to the cost.

Biography: Joshua Gallaway has been an Assistant Professor at Northeastern University since 2017, where he has founded the Analysis of Complex Electrochemical Systems Laboratory (ACES). He received his PhD in chemical engineering from Columbia University in 2007. Working with his advisor Prof. Scott Calabrese Barton, he characterized the electron transfer rates of enzymes embedded in oxygen-reducing hydrogels. After his PhD work he completed a postdoctoral appointment with Prof. Alan West, also at Columbia, studying non-uniform current distributions in sub-micron interconnect features for the semiconductor industry. He then joined the newly-formed CUNY Energy Institute in a research position funded by the Wallis Foundation. There he worked on an ARPA-E funded project headed by Distinguished Professor Sanjoy Banerjee, which resulted in the spin out company Urban Electric Power. His recent research has focused on using high energy synchrotron techniques to visualize non-uniform reactions within battery electrodes.

Please email Alyssa Ramsey at a.ramsey@northeastern.edu for the link to the seminar.