Investments in research infrastructure

Professors Ian Hill and Jeff Dahn received CFI funding that will provide new materials for energy production, storage and sustainability. (Bruce Bottomley Photo)

Dalhousie professors Jeff Dahn and Ian Hill want to help make our everyday energy needs come from renewable and sustainable energy sources. Not only that, they'd like to make it less expensive. Thanks to new government funding, they can.

The physics and atmospheric science professors will receive $1.8 million worth of equipment to help advance their groundbreaking research. Having dedicated their careers to sustainable and renewable energy—Dr. Dahn with batteries and Dr. Hill with organic solar cells—they have seen the changes in science and society and know they are adding valuable knowledge to an already growing sector.

“You can look out your window and see windmills, solar panels, and hybrid cars,” says Dr. Dahn, cross-appointed with the department of chemistry. “Change is going to be an incremental building of all the infrastructure over time and people like Ian and I are trying to make batteries and solar cells that will be longer lived, more efficient and hopefully less expensive; it’s not like a switch is going to be flicked on and things will just appear.”

As car companies focus more and more on battery and hybrid technology they will benefit from the research Dr. Dahn will now be able to conduct. He’ll develop new materials for the next generation of Lithium-ion batteries, those used in electric and hybrid automobiles. While Li-ion batteries outperform regular rechargeable batteries, next-generation batteries need even longer cycle-life for automotive and energy storage applications.

Similarly, Dr. Hill can now conduct organic solar cell research that previously would take months to organize with other scientists at different universities. With this funding Dr. Hill hopes that his research can lead to cheaper, more efficient organic solar cells, capable of providing similar amounts of energy to that of the current and very expensive silicon-based solar cells.

The funding for the infrastructure that will make all of this possible comes from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation’s Leading Edge Fund and New Initiatives Fund. Besides Dr. Hill and Dr. Dahn's project, Dalhousie scientists are partnering on seven other national CFI projects.

“This grant will enable us to do more research here at Dalhousie and go further with the technology and really show what we can do with it,” explains Dr. Hill.

The components involved in the grant, to be exact, are made up of three components with names straight out of Star Wars. The small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) system, organic photoelectron spectroscopy and an upgrade to thin-film deposition system for doping [incorporating impurity molecules] of organic cell materials.

This equipment will not only benefit Dr. Dahn and Dr. Hill but various other researchers and students in physics and chemistry, as well as other institutions in the region and North America and even commercial partners such as 3M and Toshiba. Dalhousie will be the only university in Eastern Canada with these unique capabilities.

“This is very interesting science but it’s also very important to society and has heated up enormously in the last couple of years,” says Dr. Dahn. “There are many opportunities for students and interest from students in the research – it’s easily fundable, interesting and a benefit to society, what more could you want?”