Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy
Ismail completed his MPhys in Theoretical Physics at the University of Manchester, with a year abroad at the University of California, Berkeley. After graduating with an MRes in the Department of Engineering (Graphene CDT) at the University of Cambridge, he joined Prof Manish Chhowalla’s group in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy for his PhD. His research focuses on engineering 2D materials for energy storage applications.
Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries represent one of the most promising technologies to advance battery performance beyond lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), and enable applications previously inaccessible due to poor energy to weight ratio such as powered flight. Commercialisation of Li-S batteries has been hindered by the lack of a viable cathode material with energy density to complement the Li-metal anode used in these cells.
Ismail’s research into a new cathode material has allowed a transformative breakthrough enabling high-energy and long-life Li-S batteries. The demonstrated cathode material in Li-S batteries to show high energy density and stability is published in Nature Energy volume 8, pages 84–93 (2023).
To commercialise this ground-breaking research Ismail has been awarded an EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) Early-stage Commercialisation grant, and will begin as a Research Fellow at the Faraday Institution.
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