Older Group News
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June 2023- At the SOFC–XVIII Conference in Boston, MA, USA we presented oral and/or poster presentations on 1) On-Board Sr Getters for Improved Solid Oxide Cell Durability, 2) Ag-Ni Brazes and Self-Assembled Circuits with Favorable Wetting Behavior, Electrical Performance, and Microstructural Stability on Ceramic and/or Stainless-Steel Substrates, and 3) Pt Current Collectors Artificially Boosting Ceria Oxygen Surface Exchange Coefficients. |
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May 2023- Our paper led by Robert Termuhlen of Dr. Hui-Chai Yu's group reviewing past imbibition models and showing how they can be modified to account for molten metal imbibition into a wettable porous network atop an unwettable substrate was published in Materialia. Click here for the publication |
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April 2023- We are grateful to the National Science Foundation CBET Catalysis Program for support of our newest project: "Current-Collector-Optional Measurements to Quantify Precious Metal and Polarization Impacts on Oxygen Surface Exchange Coefficients". Thanks NSF! |
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March 2023- At the 2023 TMS Meeting in San Diego, our collaborator, PhD Candidate Robert Termuhlen from the group of Dr. Hui-Chia Yu, discussed how to model molten silver fluid flow into the porous nickel interlayers used in our Ag-Ni braze joints and electrical contacts. The title of his talk was "Diffuse Interface Technique to Simulate Fluid Flow and Characterize Complex Porous Media". |
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February 2023- Our paper led by Dr. Jiyun Park from Dr. Yue Qi's group computationally predicting the conditions under which surface Sr segregation occurs in the prototypical SOC oxygen electrode material Lanthanum Strontium Ferrite was published as a Cover Article in Surface Science. Click here for the publication |
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January 2023- At the 47th International Conference and Expo on Advanced Ceramics and Composites, Mr. Genzhi Hu presented an oral presentation on "Ag-Based Brazes with Built-In Aluminum Getters to Produce Dense, Strong, and Low-Resistance Electrical Contacts on Al2O3-Protected Stainless Steel." Prof. Nicholas also delivered an invited oral presentation on "Pt Current Collectors Artificially Boosting Praseodymium Doped Ceria Oxygen Surface Exchange Coefficients" describing work performed with Nicholas group members Yuxi Ma and Ted Burye. |
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October 2022- Prof. Nicholas delivered a final report to the U.S Department of Energy (DOE) on our "High-Performance Circuit Pastes for Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Applications" project at the 23rd Annual SOFC Project Review Meeting. Even with the COVID-19 pandemic, we were able to produce nine peer-reviewed publications and demonstrate the viability of Ag-Ni circuits for a variety of high-temperature electronic and electrochemical device materials sets. Thanks for the three years of support, DOE! Click here for the presentation |
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July 2022- Thank you to those who cited our work and helped us reach >1,000 Web of Science, Google, and Scopus journal citations for the first time! |
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June 2022- Thank you to the ~250 people who participated in the two day Electrochemical Society Meeting Symposium on Mechano-Electro-Chemical Coupling in Energy Related Materials and Devices 4. Lead organizer Nicola Perry and fellow Nicholas Group co-organizers Igor Lubromirsky, Yue Qi and Neil P. Dasgupta did a great job! |
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May 2022- Prof. Nicholas gave a contributed talk at on "Pt Current Collectors Artificially Boosting Si-Contaminated Praseodymium Doped Ceria Oxygen Surface Exchange Coefficients" at the 241st meeting of the Electrochemical Society in Vancouver, Canada. |
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April 2022- Prof. Nicholas gave an invited colloquium to the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette on "Interface Engineered Solid Fuel Cell Materials". |
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February 2022- Our new 1700oC Rapid Thermal Cycling Furnace, capable of heating and cooling rates up to 50oC/min, was installed. |
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January 2022- Our paper reporting similar elevated temperature thermo-mechanical property values for Praseodymium Doped Ceria thin films measured via multiple techniques was published in Materials Advances. Click here for the publication |
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November 2021- Our paper highlighting the potential pitfalls of using precious metal current collectors for oxygen surface exchange measurements was published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A. Click here for the publication |
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October 2021- Our paper quantifying how Si surface impurities alter the oxygen exchange coefficient of the oxygen exchange catalyst Praseodymium Doped Cerium Oxide was published in the Journal of the Electrochemical Society. Click here for the publication |
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May 2021- Our work demonstrating how porous nickel layers can be used to promote the wetting, spreading, and adhesion of silver current collecting circuits on ceramic substrates was featured by MSU Today. Click here for the write-up |
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April 2021- Congratulations to our friends at OxEon Energy, MIT, and NASA for mankind's first successful deployment of a Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cell on another planet! Hopefully the media buzz surrounding this accomplishment will spur greater R&D funding that will allow us to reap benefits of widespread, cost-competitive SOC deployment here on Earth! |
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March 2021- Our paper arguing that it is time to update the notion that poor cathode performance typically limits the performance of State-of-the-Art SOFCs was published in the Journal of the Electrochemical Society. Click here for the publication |
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February 2021- Our paper describing how dense, well-adhered circuits/current collectors can be produced by using pre-patterned porous nickel layers to direct the wetting and spreading of molten silver on ceramic substrates was published in Scripta Materialia. We also have an accompanying movie showing silver defying gravity as it melts and spreads into a pre-patterned porous nickel layer on sapphire. Click here for the publication Click here for the movie |
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February 2021- Our paper showing how nano-ceria infiltrate particles improve the stability of the SOFC cathode material Lanthanum Strontium Iron Cobaltite by chemically gettering surface-segregated Sr was published in the Journal of the Electrochemical Society. This work also showed that, for yet to be determined reasons, the related SOFC cathode material Samarium Strontium Cobaltite does not age via a Sr surface-segregation mechanism, and hence is not made more stable through nano-ceria additions. Click here for the publication |
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January 2021- At the 45th International Conference and Expo on Advanced Ceramics and Composites, Prof. Nicholas delivered an oral presentation entitled "On-Board Strontium Getters for Improved Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Nano-Composite Cathode Performance and Stability" describing work performed with Yubo Zhang, Yeting Wen, and Dr. Kevin Huang. |
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October 2020- PhD Graduate Dr. Yubo Zhang gave a contributed talk on "Atomic Layer Deposited Zirconia Overcoats as On-Board Strontium Getters for Improved Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Nano-Composite Cathode Durability" at the Pacific Rim Meeting on Electrochemical and Solid State Science. Click here for the presentation |
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September 2020- Our paper with the group of Dr. Yue Qi computationally predicting how various discrete nickel particle arrangements promote the wetting and spreading of molten silver on ceramic substrates was published in Acta Materialia. Click here for the publication |
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August 2020- Congratulations to Dr. Yubo Zhang for passing his PhD Defense and securing a Post Doc position at Northwestern University! The title of Yubo's dissertation was "Performance and Stability of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Nanocomposite Electrodes". |
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August 2020- Our paper with the group of Dr. Hui-Chia Yu describing a new computational trick to incorporate the rigid body motion of individual particles into phase-field sintering models, while keeping memory requirements low, was published in Computational Materials Science. Click here for the publication |
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July 2020- Congratulations to our friends at OxEon Energy, MIT, and NASA for the successful development and launch of the MOXIE oxygen generation module aboard the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover. The MOXIE module uses Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cells (SOECs) to produce oxygen from carbon dioxide within the Martian atmosphere. This oxygen is critical for long-term manned deployment on Mars and, due to weight concerns, will save NASA approximately $1 Billion per roundtrip flight to Mars by allowing rocket fuel oxidant to be made on Mars instead of requiring its transport from Earth. The rover is scheduled to land on Mars on February 18, 2021. |
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June 2020- Congratulations to Nicholas Group member Yubo Zhang for winning the Michigan State University Materials Science Program 2019-2020 Outstanding Graduate Student Award! |
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April 2020- The final paper in our trilogy with Dr. Yue Qi and co-workers exploring oxygen vacancy formation, ordering, and migration in the lanthanum strontium oxide solid solution was published in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. This paper confirms, and provides a deeper understanding of, experimental results showing that rhombohedral lanthanum strontium ferrite has the highest oxygen surface exchange coefficient in the LaFeO3-x– SrFeO3-x solid solution and that cubic strontium ferrite (stabilized with cobalt in the commonly studied oxygen permeation membrane composition SrCo0.8Fe0.2O3-x) has the highest oxygen ion conductivity in the LaFeO3-x– SrFeO3-x solid solution. Click here for the publication |
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March 2020- Our paper with the group of Dr. Kevin Huang showing that atomic-layer-deposited zirconia overcoats can improve Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) cathode stability by serving as on-board strontium getters was published in ACS Applied Energy Materials. Surprisingly, despite the well-deserved, bad reputation Strontium Zirconate has gotten over the past 30 years for hurting SOFC performance, a little bit of Strontium Zirconate, in the right place, can be a good thing for SOFC durability. Click here for the publication |
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October 2019- PhD Student Yubo Zhang gave a contributed talk on "Degradation Mitigation of Infiltrated Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Cathodes by Electrocatalyst Surface Modification", Dr. Nicholas gave on invited talk on "Using a Thin Film’s Mechanical Response to Measure its Electrochemical Properties, Point Defect Concentrations and Mechanical Properties", and now-graduated PhD student Yuxi Ma gave a poster on "Oxygen Surface Exchange Coefficients of Aged Strontium Titanium Iron Oxide Perovskite from Wafer Curvature vs. Optical Relaxation" at the 236th Meeting of the Electrochemical Society in Atlanta, GA. |
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September 2019- Congratulations to Dr. Yuxi Ma for passing his PhD Defense and securing a Post-Doctoral Position at the University of South Carolina with Dr. Dongkyu Lee! The title of Yuxi's dissertation is "Mechanical, Thermal, and Electrochemical Properties of Mixed Ionic Electronic Conductors from Wafer Curvature Measurements". |
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July 2019- Prof. Nicholas gave an invited talk on Strain Engineered Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Cathodes at the Telluride Science Research Center Workshop on "High Temperature Energy Conversion: Electrochemical Oxidation and Reduction Mechanisms". Drs. Rob Walker, Jeff Owrutsky and Brian Eichhorn deserve a big thank you for organizing this great workshop! |
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June 2019- Our paper with Dr. Susannah Dorfman showing that ruby thin films can be used for biaxial stress sensing was published in the Journal of Applied Physics. Click here for the publication |
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June 2019- Our paper showing that Ag-Ni stainless steel to YSZ braze joints perform better than conventional Ag-CuO braze joints during the early stages of dual atmosphere SOFC aging was published in the Journal of the Electrochemical Society. Click here for the publication |
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May 2019- Congratulations to Dr. Quan Zhou for completing his PhD and securing a position at Argonne National Laboratory! The title of Quan's dissertation is "New Braze Material for Planar Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Applications". |
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January 2019- At the 43rd International Conference and Expo on Advanced Ceramics and Composites in Daytona Beach, FL, Prof. Nicholas delivered an invited oral presentation on "New Silver-Based Alloys for Solid Oxide Cell Brazing and Circuit Patterning" for work completed with Quan Zhou, Yuxi Ma, and Dr. Thomas Bieler. |
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December 2018- Our patent describing how the porous nickel interlayers described here can be used to facilitate joining between a variety of materials was published online. Click here for the patent |
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December 2018- Congratulations to Mr. Eric Straley for completing his MS Degree. The title of Eric's master's thesis is "Ruby Thin Film Pressure Sensors". |
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November 2018- Congratulations to Genzhi Hu for joining the group! Thanks to financial support from the U.S. Department of Energy Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Program Genzhi will be able to determine whether the porous nickel interlayer enabled silver based brazes, described here, can also be used to produce high performance Solid Oxide Fuel Cell circuit pastes. Click here for Genzhi's Biography |
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October 2018- Our paper showing how a thin film's biaxial modulus, Young’s modulus, thermal expansion coefficient, thermo-chemical expansion coefficient, oxygen nonstoichiometry, chemical oxygen surface exchange coefficient, oxygen surface exchange resistance, thermal stress, chemical stress, thermal strain, and chemical strain can all be obtained from in situ, current-collector-free wafer curvature measurements was published in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. Click here for the publication |
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October 2018- At the Fall Materials Science & Technology Conference in Columbus, Ohio Mr. Yuxi Ma gave a talk on "Low Temperature Silver-Based Brazing of Stainless Steel to Gadolinium Doped Ceria for SOFC Applications", Mr. Thanaphong (Joe) Phonghpreecha gave a talk on "Computational Design of Metal Oxides to Enhance the Wetting and Adhesion of Silver-based Brazes on Yttria Stabilized Zirconia", Dr. Yue Qi gave an invited talk on "Computational Studies of Charge Transfer, Oxygen Vacancy Formation, and Oxygen Vacancy Ordering in Lanthanum Strontium Ferrite", and Prof. Nicholas gave contributed and an invited talks on "Porous Nickel Interlayer Enabled Silver Brazes and Circuits on Metals and Ceramics" and "A Comparison of the Wafer Curvature and X-Ray Diffractometry Determined Mechanical Properties, Defect Chemistry, and Electrochemical Performance of Praseodymium Doped Ceria Thin Films", respectively. |
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June 2018- Dr. Jason Nicholas, Dr. Yue Qi, Dr. Thomas Bieler, Dr. Timothy Hogan and Dr. Hui-Chai Yu would like to thank the Department of Energy Solid Oxide Fuel Program for funding our new "High-Performance Circuit Pastes for Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Applications" proposal. Click here for the Press Release |
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May 2018- Our paper with Dr. Yue Qi and Dr. Brian Sheldon showing how charge disproportionation during oxygen vacancy formation determines the amount of chemical expansion, creates elastic dipoles, and produces local structural anisotropy in cubic cerium oxide was published in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. Click here for the publication |
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May 2018- Thank you to the ~350 people who participated in the three day Electrochemcial Society Symposium on Mechano-Electro-Chemical Coupling in Energy Related Materials and Devices 3. Thanks also to symposium co-organizers Nicola Perry, Gery Stafford, Keiji Zhao and Ahmet Kusoglu! |
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April 2018- Our paper with Dr. Yue Qi and Dr. Thomas Bieler identifying oxide braze additions or substrate coatings that facilitate silver wetting and adhesion on zirconia was published in Acta Materialia. Click here for the publication |
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March 2018- Congratulations to Yubo Zhang for passing his Comprehensive Exam! |
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February 2018- Our paper with Dr. Thomas Bieler describing a new ceramic-to-metal joining technique utilizing transient porous nickel interlayers for improved silver-based Solid Oxide Fuel Cell brazes was published in Acta Materialia. Click here for the publication |
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December 2017- Our paper with Dr. Yue Qi describing how doping and d-orbital splitting interact to determine oxygen vacancy polaron size across the lanthanum ferrite - strontium ferrite solid solution was published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A. Click here for the publication |
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November 2017- Congratulations to Dr. Tridip Das for passing his PhD Defense. We wish him well at his new job at Intel! |
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October 2017- Tridip Das, a student co-advised by Dr. Yue Qi and Dr Nicholas, gave an oral presentation at the 232nd Meeting of the Electrochemical Society in National Harbor, MD entitled "Predicting Oxygen Vacancy Polaron Size from D-Orbital Splitting in ABO3 (A=La, Sr; B=Mn, Fe, Co) Perovskites". |
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August 2017- The Nicholas Group and collaborators including Dr. Kevin Huang of the University of South Carolina and Dr. Shawn Ji of Atrex Energy received a new award from the Department of Energy Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Program to conduct " Degradation and Performance Studies of ALD-Stabilized Nano-Composite SOFC Cathodes." Thanks, DOE. We appreciate the support! |
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July 2017- In conjunction with Dr. Yue Qi, Dr. Thomas Bieler, Tridip Das, Quan Zhou, and Rick Kerr, Prof. Nicholas presented two invited talks at the SOFC-XV conference in Hollywood, FL entitled "Reactive-Element Free, Silver-Based Brazes for SOFC Applications" and "First-Principles Studies of Oxygen Vacancy Interactions and Their Impact on Oxygen Migration in Lanthanum Strontium Ferrite". Quan Zhou and Yuxi Ma also gave posters on "Reactive-Element Free, Silver-Based Brazes for SOFC Applications" and "Using a Curvature Measurement Platform to Determine In-Situ Oxygen Surface Exchange Coefficients, Thermo-Chemical Expansion Coefficients and Elastic Constants of Oxide Thin Films", respectively. |
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July 2017- Prof. Nicholas was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor (and bought his first house). |
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July 2017- In collaboration with Prof. Susannah Dorfman, PhD candidate Eric Straley and Prof. Nicholas presented posters at the COMPRES annual meeting in Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico on the "Use of Ruby Thin Films as High Spatial Resolution Fluorescent Pressure Sensors" and "Thin-Film-Enabled, High Pressure Lab-on-A-Chip Technology for Mineral Physics Applications", respectively. |
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June 2017- Prof. Nicholas gave an invited talk at the 21st Solid State Ionics conference in Padua, Italy entitled "Use of a Non-Contact, In situ, and Electrode-Free Wafer Curvature Technique to "Simultaneously" Measure the Stresses, Oxygen Surface Exchange Coefficients, Elastic Constants, and Thermo-Chemical Expansion Coefficients of MIEC Thin Films" |
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April 2017- Our invited book chapter on In Situ Wafer Curvature Relaxation Measurements to Determine Surface Exchange Coefficients and Thermo-Chemically Induced Stresses was published as part of Springer's book on the Electro-Chemo-Mechanics of Solids. Click here for the publication |
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March 2017- Prof. Nicholas delivered an invited oral presentation to the Detroit Section of the Electrochemical Society on "Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Technology for Energy Conversion, Energy Storage and Bias-Directed Chemical Reactions". |
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January 2017- Our paper with Dr. Yue Qi describing a DFT-based thermodynamics model for interacting vacancies and a new mechanism for oxygen vacancy interactions in the prototypical SOFC material SrFeO3-x was published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A. Click here for the publication |
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December 2016- Congratulations to to Eric Straley and Yuxi Ma for passing their Comprehensive Exams! |
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October 2016- Prof. Nicholas delivered oral presentations on "Practical Considerations for Determining Thermo-Chemically Induced Stresses, Oxygen Surface Exchange Coefficients, Elastic Constants, and Thermal Expansion Coefficients from Wafer Curvature Measurements" and " Long Range Charge Transfer and Oxygen Vacancy Interactions in Strontium Ferrite" at the Prime 2016 Meeting in Honolulu, HI. |
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July 2016- Prof. Nicholas delivered an invited presentation on "Structure-Property-Processing-Performance Relations in Nano-Composite Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Cathodes" at the Solid State Studies in Ceramics Gordon Research Seminar in South Hadley, MA. |
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July 2016- At the 17th Annual Department of Energy Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Workshop Tridip Das presented a poster on "Atomic-Scale Insights into Long-Range Charge Transfer in Lanthanum Strontium Ferrite", Quan Zhou presented a poster on "Nickel-based Braze Materials for Planar Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Applications", Yuxi Ma presented a poster on "Computational Predictions and Experimental Characterization of Cobalt and Copper Based Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Brazes", and Dr. Nicholas presented an invited oral presentation on "Durable, Impermeable Brazes for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells". |
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June 2016- Our paper showing that precursor solution desiccation or ceria preinfiltration can be used to reduce the particle sizes of all infiltrate compositions in the La0.6Sr0.4FeO3 (LSF) - La0.6Sr0.4CoO3 solid solution was published in the Journal of the Electrochemical Society. Click here for the publication |
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May 2016- Prof. Nicholas delivered oral presentations on "The Effect of Precursor Gel Desiccation, Ceria Oxide Pre-Infiltration, and Precursor Solution Additives on Infiltrated Lanthanum Strontium Ferrite-Lanthanum Strontium Cobaltite Solid Solution Nano-Particles" and "Intrinsic Oxygen Surface Exchange Resistance Measurements on Mixed Ionic Electronic Conducting Infiltrate Nanoparticles" at the 229th Meeting of the Electrochemical Society in San Diego, CA. |
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April 2016- Our paper summarizing the design, merits, and requirements of using our novel curvature relaxation technique to perform simultaneous in situ/in operando oxygen surface exchange coefficient and film stress measurements was published in Extreme Mechanics Letters. Click here for the publication |
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February 2016- At the 2016 Michigan State Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, Prof. Nicholas helped lead a station on "Predicting Atomic Structure with Computers". Thanks to PhD Student Christine James for organizing this station. Over 350 girls and parents participated in year's Introduce a Girl to Engineering activities. |
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January 2016- At the 40th International Conference and Expo on Advanced Ceramics and Composites in Daytona Beach, FL, Prof. Nicholas delivered an invited oral presentation on "Using Precursor Solution Desiccation, Nano-Ceria Pre-Infiltration, and/or Organic Precursor Solution Additives to Improve the Electrochemical Performance and Stability of Infiltrated Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Cathodes". |
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November 2015- Our paper showing that infiltrate precursor solution additive chemistry is critical for producing size-tailored La0.6Sr0.4Co0.8Fe0.2O3-x infiltrate nano-particles via desiccation is published in the Journal of Power Sources. Click here for the publication |
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October 2015- At the Fall Materials Science & Technology Conference in Columbus, Ohio Tridip Das and Quan Zhou gave oral presentations on the computational and experimental components, respectively, of "A Thermodynamics and First-Principles Based Approach to Develop Silver-Free Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Braze Alloys". Prof. Nicholas also gave an invited oral presentation on "Use of the Curvature Relaxation Technique to Simultaneously Measure the Oxygen Surface Exchange Coefficient and Stress State of Porous or Dense Films". |
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October 2015- Our paper showing that ceria pre-infiltration reduces the size of subsequently infiltrated La0.6Sr0.4Co0.8Fe0.2O3-x nano-particles (and hence improves SOFC cathode performance) was published in the Journal of Power Sources. Click here for the publication |
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September 2015- The Nicholas Group would like to welcome our new group mascot, Grant Alexander Nicholas, born 6 lbs, 11 oz. Click here for a picture |
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August 2015- Congratulations to Dr. Theodore Burye for completing his PhD and securing a position at the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research Development and Engineering Center! The title of Ted's dissertation is "Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Cathode Infiltrate Particle Size Control and Oxygen Surface Exchange Resistance Determination". |
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July 2015- At the 16th Annual Department of Energy Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Workshop Tridip Das presented a poster on "Determining the Phase Stability and Oxygen Nonstoichiometry of Lanthanum Strontium Ferrite Structures By Combining Density Functional Theory and Thermodynamics", Ted Burye presented a poster on "Tailoring Infiltrate Particle Size Through Precursor Solution Desiccation or Nano-Ceria Pre-Infiltration", Yuxi Ma presented a poster on "Porous Thick Film Lanthanum Strontium Ferrite Stress and Oxygen Surface Exchange Bilayer Curvature Relaxation Measurements", and Dr. Yue Qi presented an invited oral presentation on "Durable, Impermeable Brazes for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells". |
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June 2015- At the 20th Solid State Ionics Conference in Keystone, Colorado Eric Straley presented a poster on "SIMPLE (Simple Infiltrated Microstructural Polarization Loss Estimation) Model Insights into Infiltrated Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Anodes", Yuxi Ma presented a poster on "Porous Thick Film Lanthanum Strontium Ferrite Stress and Oxygen Surface Exchange Bilayer Curvature Relaxation Measurements", and Prof. Nicholas presented a poster on "Tailoring SOFC Infiltrate Particle Sizes with Desiccation or Nano-Ceria Preinfiltration". |
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May 2015- PhD Candidate Tridip Das gave an oral presentation on "Determining the Phase Stability and Oxygen Nonstoichiometry of Lanthanum Strontium Ferrite Structures by Combining Density Functional Theory and Thermodynamics" at the 227th Meeting of the Electrochemical Society in Chicago, IL. |
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May 2015- Congratulations to Ted Burye for passing his PhD Defense! Congratulations to Eric Straley and Yuxi Ma for passing their Preliminary Exams. |
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February 2015- Prof. Nicholas co-organized the third annual Michigan State Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Demo Day. During the event, 230 girls and troop leaders participated in 25-minute, hands-on demonstrations on "Plants that Move", "Electricity and Magnetism", "Solar Energy", Chloroplast Division", "Basic Lung Function", "Bacteria", "Stream Restoration", "Lip Gloss Manufacture", "Smashing Nuclei", "The Mystery Fish of Science", "Mathematical Patterns", "Face Recognition", "High Speed Photography of Physical Interactions", "Computer Science Puzzles", "Scanning Electron Microscopy of Everyday Objects", The Hydrologic Cycle", "Animal Hospital", and "Fruit Batteries and Fuel Cells". |
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January 2015- PhD Candidate Ted Burye gave an oral presentation on "The Effect of Precursor Gel Desiccation, Ceria Oxide Pre-Infiltration, and Solution Composition on the Size of Lanthanum Strontium Ferrite-Lanthanum Strontium Cobaltite Infiltrate Nano-Particles" at the 39th International Conference and Exposition on Advanced Ceramics and Composites in Daytona Beach, FL. At this meeting, Dr. Nicholas gave an oral presentation on "A New Curvature Relaxation Technique to Perform Simultaneous, In Situ Oxygen Surface Exchange Coefficient and Stress Measurements on Dense or Porous Films" Click here for information |
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November 2014- Our paper showing that precursor nitrate solution desiccation can be used to tailor the average size of infiltrated La0.6Sr0.4Co0.8Fe0.2O3-x nano-particles (and hence improve SOFC cathode performance) was published in the Journal of Power Sources. Click here for the publication |
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October 2014- The Journal of the Electrochemical Society Focus Issue on Mechano-Electro-Chemical Coupling in Energy Related Materials and Devices edited by Dr. Nicholas and his colleagues is now online. Click here for the Table of Contents |
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October 2014- Our reflections on the definition of mechano-electro-chemical coupling (made in collaboration with Dr. Yue Qi, Dr. Sean Bishop, and Dr. Partha Mukherjee) can be found in the Journal of the Electrochemical Society Focus Issue Introduction to Mechano-Electro-Chemical Coupling in Energy Related Materials and Devices. Click here for the publication |
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September 2014- Congratulations to newly graduated group member Dr. Qing Yang for securing a post-doctoral research position at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Advanced Light Source. Welcome to new group members Quan Zhou, Eric Straley, Yuxi Ma and Riley O'Shea! |
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September 2014- In conjunction with Dr. Yue Qi, and Dr. Thomas Bieler, the Nicholas Group received a Department of Energy Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Program Award on "Durable, Impermeable Brazes for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells". We appreciate the support! Click here to learn more about this project |
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September 2014- Our paper detailing 8 mol% Yttria Stabilized Zirconia sintering additive impacts was published in
Ceramics International. Congratulations to undergraduate Andrew Flegler for publishing this, his first peer-reviewed journal article. Click here for the publication |
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August 2014- Our paper showing how the curvature relaxation technique can be used to the extract oxygen surface exchange coefficients of porous thick film materials was published in the Journal of the Electrochemical Society. In this paper, we have also observed a temperature-induced transition from grain boundary dominated chemical expansion to lattice dominated chemical expansion, for the first time. Click here for the publication |
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August 2014- Congratulations to Dr. Qing Yang for completing his PhD! The title of Qing's dissertation is "Development and Use of a New Curvature Relaxation Technique to Measure the In Situ Oxygen Surface Exchange Coefficients and Stress of Lanthanum Strontium Ferrite Films". |
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July 2014- Dr. Nicholas delivered an invited "Using Mechano-Chemical Coupling to Probe Oxygen Surface Exchange Coefficients" presentation at the Solid State Studies in Ceramics Gordon Research Conference. Click here for details |
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July 2014- Dr. Nicholas delivered an invited "Separate Grain Boundary and Bulk Response in the Stress and Oxygen Surface Exchange Behavior of Lanthanum Strontium Iron Oxide Films Measured by the Curvature Relaxation Technique" presentation at the Oxide Thin Films for Advanced Energy and Information Applications Conference. Click here for details |
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May 2014- Congratulations to Nicholas group member Tridip Das for an Electro-chemical Society Poster Award for his poster on "Comparison of Density Functional Theory Predictions with Experimentally Measured Lanthanum Strontium Ferrite Thin Film Oxygen Surface Exchange Coefficients". Tridip is co-advised by Dr. Yue Qi. |
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May 2014- At the 225th Meeting of the Electrochemical Society Theodore Burye gave an oral presentation on "Tailoring Mixed Ionic and Electronic Conducting Nano-Particle Size through Desiccation and/or Sequential Infiltration" and Qing Yang gave an oral presentation on "Porous Thick Film Low Temperature Lanthanum Strontium Ferrite Oxygen Surface Exchange Coefficient Measurements by Curvature Relaxation". Symposium A3, which was lead-organized by Dr. Nicholas and explored the interplay between the mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties of battery, fuel cell, and other energy-related materials/devices, was very successful with 42 oral presentations and 3 posters over 3 days. |
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May 2014- Congratulations to group members Qing Yang, Theodore Burye, and Tridip Das for passing their PhD Defense, Comprehensive Examination, and Qualifying Examination, respectively. |
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February 2014- 65 Girl Scouts and troop leaders participated in the second annual Michigan State Girl Scout Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Demo Day. This event, organized by Dr. Nicholas, featured faculty, staff and student led demo sessions on Logic Puzzles, Fruit Batteries and Fuel Cells, The Mystery
Fish of Science, Engineering your Food, Materials in Engineering, Nuclear Fragmentation Box, Electron Microscope Guessing Game, Making Sense of Scents, and Measurements on the Human Body. Click here for photos |
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January 2014- Highlights from the 2013 National Science Foundation Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Promise, Progress, and Priorities (SOFC-PPP) Workshop are published in the Winter 2013 issue of ECS Interface. Click here for the report |
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December 2013- At the Thermec 2013 Meeting, Dr. Nicholas gave an invited oral presentation on "Next Generation Techniques for Reduced Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cells" explaining how infiltrated nano-particle sizes can be tuned by varying precursor nitrate decomposition conditions. |
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October 2013- At the Fall 2013 Electrochemical Society Meeting, group member Qing Yang gave an oral presentation on "Low Temperature Strontium Ferrite Thin Film Stress and Oxygen Surface Exchange Coefficient Measurements" |
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September 2013- Our paper announcing how our new in situ, electrode-free curvature relaxation technique can be used to measure the oxygen surface exchange coefficients of mechano-chemically active materials was published in Solid State Ionics. Click here for the publication |
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August 2013- The Nicholas Group received an Army Research Office STIR Grant on "Strain Engineering Defect Concentrations in Reduced Ceria for Improved Electrocatalytic Performance". We appreciate the support!
One peer-reviewed publication resulted from this 9 month award. Click here for the publication |
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July 2013- The Nicholas Group received an National Science Foundation CAREER Award on "Strain Engineered Mixed Ionic Electronic Conducting Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Anode Catalysts". We appreciate the support! |
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July 2013- Our paper detailing the hardness of Ce0.9Gd0.1O1.95 as a function of porosity was published in the Journal of Materials Science. Click here for the publication |
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July 2013- The Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Promise, Progress, and Priorities (SOFC-PPP) workshop was a great success thanks to the enthusiastic and insightful contributions of workshop participants from academia, industry and the U.S. government. Workshop details are available at www.sofcwg.org. |
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June 2013- The Spring 2014 Electrochemical Society Meeting A3: Mechanical-Electrochemical Coupling in Energy Related Materials Symposium Call for Papers is announced. The Nicholas Group is helping to organize this event. |
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May 2013- Qing Yang gave a presentation at the Michigan State University Chemical Engineering and Materials Science 2013 Research Forum entitled "Probing the Catalytic Activity of La0.6Sr0.4FeO3-x Thin Films via a New Curvature Relaxation Technique". |
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March 2013- Dr. Nicholas won a Michigan State College of Engineering Withrow Teaching Award for "Excellence in Instructional and Scholarly Activities". |
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February 2013- Our paper detailing the elastic properties of Ce0.9Gd0.1O1.95 as a function of porosity was published in
Ceramics International. Click here for the publication |
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January 2013- Over 50 Girl Scouts and troop leaders participated in the first annual Michigan State Girl Scout Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) day. This event, organized by Dr. Nicholas, featured 30 minute demonstrations on atoms and light, slow motion photography, hologram manufacture, robotic fish, logic puzzles, the scientific method, lip gloss manufacture, the microscopic investigation of cosmetics, and veterinary care. Click here for details |
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November 2012- Dr. Nicholas presented a Materials Science and Engineering Department Colloquium at the Missouri University of Science & Technology entitled "Strategies for Reduced Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cells" |
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October 2012- Our paper detailing the applicability and limitations of the SIMPLE model to describe mixed ionic electronic conductor (MIEC) - ionic conductor (IC) nano-composite Solid Oxide Fuel Cell cathodes was published in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. Click here for the publication |
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October 2012- At the Fall 2012 Materials Science & Technology Conference, Ted Burye presented a poster on the polarization resistance of La0.6Sr0.4Co0.8Fe0.2-Ce0.9Gd0.1O1.95 nano-composite cathodes under bias, and Qing Yang presented a poster focused on the measurement of Ce0.9Gd0.1O1.9 surface exchange coefficients using a novel bilayer curvature relaxation technique. |
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September 2012- Our paper detailing how nano-composite cathode morphologies can be optimized via topology optimization was published by Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization. Click here for the publication |
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April 2012- An online calculator using our SIMPLE model to determine the lowest possible open circuit polarization resistance for an Mixed Ionic Electronic Conductor (MIEC)-Ionic Conductor (IC) nano-composite Solid Oxide Fuel Cell cathode is now available at: |
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January 2012- Our new Multibeam Optimal Stress Sensor for in-situ, elevated temperature, controlled atmosphere stress analysis of thin and thick films is now operational.
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November 2011- Qing Yang presented a Fall 2011 Materials Research Conference oral presentation on the sintering stress evolution of constrain sintered Ce0.9Gd0.1O1.95 thick films. |
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May 2011- In an oral presentation at the SOFC-XII Electro-Chemical Society Symposium in Montreal Canada, Dr. Nicholas presented new SIMPLE modeling results showing the performance improvements possible through microstructural optimization (infiltrate nano-particle size, scaffold porosity, scaffold particle size, etc) and nano-composite cathode materials property improvements. |
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March 2011- Dr. Nicholas presented a 45 minute overview of Alternative Energy Technologies to the Lions Club of East Lansing, MI. |