Advanced materials for magnetic and battery applications

) This project deals with two types of advanced materials for applications; magnetostrictive materials for magnetic transducers and electrode materials for rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. ) Magnetic materials are important for sensors and actuators. These are applicable to the measurement of magnetic field or mechanical strains and for actuators which are of importance for control systems. Magnetostrictive materials are materials that change their dimensions when a magnetic field is applied or that produce a magnetic field when they are mechanically stressed. The best magnetostrictive materials are single crystals, but these are expensive to produce. We are looking at ways of optimizing these materials and inexpensively producing materials that approximate the properties of single crystals. In order to do this we need to obtain a thorough understanding of the magnetic properties of these materials and how these properties can be explained in terms of fundamental physical principles and how they relate to the composition and methods used to produce the materials. ) Rechargeable batteries are important for small scale applications such as cell phones and computers as well as large scale applications such as electric vehicles or energy storage systems. New advanced battery designs require new electrode materials in order to optimize their energy storage capabilities as well as their cycle life. We are working on electrode materials for rechargeable lithium ion batteries that have superior performance and are also cost effective. The replacement of cobalt, which is expensive and is a common component in commercially available advanced batteries with less expensive elements is a major challenge and will form a major component of our work. New Na-ion batteries will utilize plentiful and inexpensive sodium rather than lithium. Research on these batteries is in the very early stages and much needs to be done to develop and characterize the materials needed for their construction. Our work in this area will focus on the development of materials for positive electrodes.