UMass Amherst Engineer Stephen S. Nonnenmann Receives Five-Year, $600,000 NSF CAREER Grant to Study Energy Conversion and Storage

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AMHERST, Mass. – Stephen S. Nonnenmann, assistant professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has received a five-year, $600,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study energy conversion and storage applications using highly sensitive microscopes. The grant is from the NSF Early Career Development (CAREER) program.

Nonnenmann says most energy and electronic applications require an active material between two electrodes. He studies metal oxides and how different combinations of them react with oxygen and carbon dioxide and transport electrons and oxygen for energy applications.

The processing of the oxides used in these applications creates empty spaces in structural sequence where the oxygen atoms typically would be. These oxygen vacancies really serve as the site that provides the function in the applications. As electrons or ions have more space to move, that increases conductivity or more space to interact with gas, which allows devices to convert gas to electricity.

Nonnenmann will use a special technique called high temperature scanning surface potential microscopy to track the electrical changes caused by the presence of oxygen vacancies at the interface between the oxide and the electrode. Structural sequence differences between the electrode and the attached oxide causes mechanical strain, which can actually produce a greater number of empty atomic sites or vacancies. For many applications this interface is then responsible for power production, but is also the source for losses that reduce efficiency. By directly imaging the evolution of electrons, ions, vacancies under the conditions that energy applications operate, Nonnenmann will help design improved power producing systems in the future.

“The ability to look at functional defects in oxides at relevant energy application temperatures is unique and this grant allows my group to propel these studies further in a more systematic and quantitative manner,” he says. “Our results will form a strong bridge with materials synthesis and computational researchers to accelerate the design and implementation of energy applications such as fuel cells and electrolysis cells. We are also excited to share our passion for surface science and advanced microscopy with young students during summer programs and year-long undergraduate projects.”

In addition to his faculty appointment in the College of Engineering, Nonnenmann is affiliated with the Institute of Applied Life Sciences (IALS), which combines deep and interdisciplinary expertise from 29 departments on the UMass Amherst campus to translate fundamental research into innovations that benefit humankind.

In IALS’s Models to Medicine Center, the Nonnenmann Lab leads a multi-faceted, creative, dynamic research program that determines nanoscale structure property relationships within functional materials that inform energy, electronic, and biological application designs. The team bridges the gap between experimental and theoretical studies to enable the observation and manipulation of physiochemical phenomena within functional materials under actual environmental conditions by pioneering advanced scanning probe microscopy.