Departmental homepageMichael De Volder is a Professor at the Department of Engineering where he leads a research team working on energy storage devices such as Li-Ion and Zn-Ion batteries to support the green energy transition. His work includes improving the sustainability of batteries through improved synthesis and manufacturing methods as well as new approaches to extend their lifetime and energy density. Prior to joining the University of Cambridge and St John's College, he carried out research at the KU Leuven, imec, MIT, Harvard and the Tokyo Institute of Technology. He is a Laureate of the Belgian Royal Academy and he is co-founder of several companies, including Echion Technologies, which specialises in the development of high-end anodes for Li-Ion batteries.
Professor De Volder teaches third-year engineering design modules and supervises second-year students on fluidic mechanics, heat transfer and thermodynamics.
His reserach interests include energy storage devices such as batteries, nanotechnology and scale-up manufacturing. Sustainability and innovation is a common theme in all his research activities.
M De Volder, S Tawfick, R Baughman, A Hart, Carbon nanotubes: present and future commercial applications, Science 339 (6119), 535-539, 2013
M De Volder, S Park, S Tawfick, A Hart, Strain-engineered manufacturing of freeform carbon nanotube microstructures, Nature communications 5 (1), 4512, 2014
W Dose, C Xu, C Grey, M De Volder, Effect of anode slippage on cathode cutoff potential and degradation mechanisms in Ni-rich Li-ion batteries, Cell Reports Physical Science 1 (11), 2020
J Lee, C Jo, M De Volder, Bicontinuous phase separation of lithium-ion battery electrodes for ultrahigh areal loading, PNAS, 117 (35), 21155-21161, 2020
