Material Science and Engineering

Materials for Energy and Environmental Sustainability

Different geophysical and social pressures are providing a shift from conventional fossil fuels to renewable and sustainable energy sources. We must create the materials that will support emergent energy technologies. Solar energy is a top priority of the department, and we are devoting extensive resources to developing photovoltaic cells that are both more efficient and less costly than current technology. We also have extensive research around next-generation battery technology. Materials performance lies at the heart of the development and optimization of green energy technologies and computational methods now plays a major role in modeling and predicting the properties of complex materials. The global market for supercapacitor is expected to grow from $1.8 billion in 2014 to $2.0 billion in 2015 at a year-on-year (YOY) growth rate of 9.2%. In addition, the market is expected to grow at a five-year CAGR (2015 to 2020) of 19.1%, to reach $4.8 billion in 2020. The competition in the global super capacitor market is intense within a few large players, such as, AVX Corp., Axion Power International, Inc., Beijing HCC Energy Tech. Co., Ltd., CAP-XX, Elna Co. Ltd., Elton, Graphene Laboratories INC., Jianghai Capacitor Co., Ltd, Jiangsu Shuangdeng Group Co., Ltd., Jinzhou Kaimei Power Co., Ltd, KEMET, LS MTRON, Maxwell Technologies INC., Nesscap Energy Inc., Nippon Chemi-Con Corp., Panasonic Co., Ltd., Shanghai Aowei Technology Development Co., Ltd., Skeleton Technologies, Supreme Power Systems Co., Ltd., XG Sciences.