About
Motivated by a desire to develop materials solutions to energy, health, and environmental challenges, the Perry group seeks to understand, tailor, and design functional and adaptive “solid state ionic” materials. Typically complex oxides or halides, the materials of interest can transport ions and/or electrons, catalyze reactions, and interact with their surroundings. As a result, they undergird the performance of a vast array of energy storage and conversion devices (e.g., batteries, fuel cells, electrolyzers), reactors, sensors, actuators, therapeutic agents, and electronics. We focus on atomic-scale anomalies, called point defects, and the active electrical, catalytic, optical, and electro-chemo-mechanical behavior they control. We leverage in situ electrochemistry, bulk and thin film synthesis, and spectroscopic and structural methods in controlled environments across many length scales to achieve this vision.
Our group forms part of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Materials Research Laboratory at UIUC. We are grateful for this institutional and administrative support as well as for funding support from the DOE, NSF, US Army/CERL, bp-ICAM, and IIE-GIRE. Learn more about research here. See the team here.
We are committed to the pursuit of equity and justice in the university STEM context and to learning about and implementing best practices for the success of diverse teams in research, mentoring, teaching, and outreach. The campus IDEA institute and anti-racism task force have provided lists of resources here and here.
News
Read more news here.
3/2024: Huge thanks to all the hosts in Japan who enabled NP to tour labs, discuss research, and present talks at U Tokyo, Murata, Kumamoto U, and Tohoku U! The activities were an extension of the ACerS Fulrath Award, fostering friendships and collaboration across the Pacific.
3/2024: Alexia was selected to participate in the 2024 X-ray absorption spectroscopy course at Brookhaven National Lab, followed by her first beamtime!
3/2024: NP has been awarded a Principal Investigator Development in Sustainability Grant from the American Chemical Society.
2/2024: Congrats to En Ju on being awarded 1st place in the American Ceramics Society poster competition at the Electronic Materials & Applications conference in Denver! 4 group members gave various talks and posters on materials used in batteries, fuel cells, and electrolyzers: Kai, Alexia, En Ju, and NP.
