Researchers are working on developing next generation approaches to power stations, new materials, and heat exchangers

How UConn Researchers Are Working to Solve the Nation’s Energy Problems

UConn receives $2 million grant to remove harmful greenhouse gas

Projects within this Exploratory Topic will develop technologies aimed at reducing sulfur hexafluoride (SF₆) emissions from the electric transmission and distribution sector. These technologies could have a significant and widespread global impact as countries look to reduce, regulate, or eliminate SF₆ emissions from their electrical grids.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE SF₆-FREE EXPLORATORY TOPIC

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A molecular engineering principle in which repeat units of fairly rigid fused bicyclic structure and alkenes, separated by freely rotating single bonds, is proposed by Gregory A. Sotzing, Yang Cao, and published as a cover highlight of the May 26th Issue of Advanced Materials in article number 2000499, led by Dr. Chao Wu, a PDF at EIRC, and Ajinkya Deshmukh, a Polymer Program PhD student for energy storage at elevated temperatures.

The piston‐like crankshaft structure endows the system with a large bandgap of ≈5eV and flexibility, while being temperature‐invariantly stable. The piston/pendant allows engineering for temperature‐invariant dipolar polarization for energy storage. As part of a UConn lead MURI program, the design strategy uncovered in this work reveals a hitherto unexplored space for the design of scalable and efficient polymer dielectrics for electrical power and electronic systems under concurrent harsh electrical and thermal conditions.

Dr. Mona Ghassemi, an IMS alumna, is a recipient of the prestigious 2020 National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award and the 2020 Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) Young Investigator Research Program (YIP) Award.

Dr. Ghassemi was a postdoctoral fellow at the IMS Electrical Insulation Research Center (EIRC) 2015 – 2017 working in the fields of streamer modeling for a DOE funded subsea O&G electrification project as well as arc gas dynamic computation for GE, with fruitful research outcomes of multiple publications  at IEEE Transactions.

Since August 2017, Dr. Ghassemi has been an assistant professor at The Bradley Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Her research interests include electrical insulation materials and systems, high voltage/field technology, Multiphysics modeling, plasma science, electromagnetic transients in power systems, and power system analysis and modeling.

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EIRC recently published a paper which was chosen as the cover highlight for the Journal of Materials Science C.

Two Ph.D. alumni, Dr. Zongze Li and Dr. Sneh Sinha are the first co-authors, and Drs. Greg Sotzing and Yang Cao are the corresponding authors. The research reports the first-ever all-organic fabric antenna enabled by our conductive polymer coating. Dr. Li’s research interests include high electric field characterization of dielectric and flexible wearable electronic.

https://www.ims.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/190/2020/06/JMCC_2020_d0tc00691b.pdf