Chemistry

John R Owen

Primary position:
Professor in Electrochemistry

Background

John Owen's Publications and Citation Metrics

John Owen obtained his first degree in Chemistry from Imperial College, London, where he also studied for his Ph.D. in Organic Electro-optic Crystals under the late E.A.D. White. He then worked on Solar Energy at the Materials and Energy Research Centre in Iran until in 1979 revolution brought him back to the Wolfson Centre for Solid State Ionics in Imperial College as Wolfson Fellow working on polymer electrolytes. In 1984 he was appointed lecturer in the Department of Chemistry and Applied Chemistry at the University of Salford before joining the School of Chemistry at Southampton in 1990 where he is now a Professor of Electrochemistry and leader of the Solid State Electrochemistry Group which researches into electrode and polymer electrolyte materials for batteries, supercapacitors, fuel cells and electrochromic devices.

John is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Power Sources. He chaired the Batteries and Supercapacitors symposium of the International Society of Electrochemistry meeting in 2006. Last year he gave invited lectures on nanomaterials and high throughput techniques for battery discovery at international meetings in Germany, Canada, and Australia and a series of lectures in China. He is a co-founder of Nanotecture PLC, a spin-out company of the University.

Professor John R Owen's photo

Publications

The University of Southampton's electronic library (e-prints)

Key Publications

Lacey, Matthew J., Frith, James T. and Owen, John R. (2013) A redox shuttle to facilitate oxygen reduction in the lithium air battery. Electrochemistry Communications, 26, 74-76. (doi:10.1016/j.elecom.2012.10.009).
Esterle, Thomas F., Sun, Danni, Roberts, Matthew R., Bartlett, Philip N. and Owen, John R. (2012) Evidence for enhanced capacitance and restricted motion of an ionic liquid confined in 2 nm diameter Pt mesopores. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 14, (11), 3872. (doi:10.1039/c2cp23687g).
Nelson, Phillip A. , Elliott, Joanne M., Attard, George S. and Owen, John R. (2002) Mesoporous nickel/nickel oxide electrodes for high power applications. Journal of New Materials for Electrochemical Systems, 5, (1), 63-66.
Whitehead, Adam , Elliott, Joanne M., Owen, John R. and Attard, George S. (1999) Electrodeposition of mesoporous tin films. Chemical Communications, (4), 331-332. (doi:10.1039/a808775j).
Attard, G. S., Elliott, J. M., Bartlett, P. N., Whitehead, A. and Owen, J. R. (2000) Nanostructured materials for batteries. Macromolecular Symposia, 156, 179-186. (doi: 10.1002/1521-3900(200007)156:1<179::AID-MASY179>3.0.CO;2-7).

Article

Roberts, Matthew, Huang, An Feng, Johns, Phil and Owen, John (2013) Dip–spin coating of reticulated vitreous carbon with composite materials to act as an electrode for 3D microstructured lithium ion batteries. Journal of Power Sources, 224, 250-259. (doi:10.1016/j.jpowsour.2012.09.103).
Wang, Qianlong, Madsen, Alex, Owen, John and Weller, Mark T. (2013) Direct hydrofluorothermal synthesis of sodium transition metal fluorosulfates as possible Na-ion battery cathode materials. Chemical Communications (doi:10.1039/C3CC38897B).
Esterle, Thomas F., Sun, Danni, Roberts, Matthew R., Bartlett, Philip N. and Owen, John R. (2012) Evidence for enhanced capacitance and restricted motion of an ionic liquid confined in 2 nm diameter Pt mesopores. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 14, (11), 3872-3881. (doi:10.1039/c2cp23687g).
Brewer, Ashley, Lacey, Matthew, Owen, John R., Nandhakumar, Iris and Stulz, Eugen (2011) Supramolecular hetero-porphyrin SWNT complexes. Journal of Porphyrins and Phthalocyanines, 15, (4), 257-263. (doi:10.1142/S1088424611003227).
Alcock, Hannah J., White, Oliver C., Jegelevicius, Grazvydas, Roberts, Matthew R, and Owen, John R (2011) New high-throughput methods of investigating polymer electrolytes. Journal of Power Sources, 196, (6), 3355-3359. (doi:10.1016/j.jpowsour.2010.11.098).
Owen, John, Roberts, Mattthew, Vitins, GIrts and Denuault, Guy (2010) High throughput electrochemical observation of structural phase changes in liFe1-xMnxPO4 during charge and discharge. Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 157, (4), A381-A386. (doi:10.1149/1.3294564).
Reiter, Jakub, Uhlířová, Tereza and Owen, John R. (2010) Electrochemical behaviour of hexacyanoferrate(II)/(III) and ferrocene/ferricinium in lyotropic liquid crystals of polyoxyethylene (10) cetylether (Brij 56). Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, 646, (1-2), 18-23. (doi:10.1016/j.jelechem.2010.04.014).
El-Enany, Gaber, Lacey, Matthew J., Johns, Phil A. and Owen, John R. (2009) In situ growth of polymer electrolytes on lithium ion electrode surfaces. Electrochemistry Communications, 11, (12), 2320-2323. (doi:10.1016/j.elecom.2009.10.019).
Johns, Philip A., Roberts, Matthew R., Wakizaka, Yasuaki, Owen, John R. and Sanders, James H. (2009) How the electrolyte limits fast discharge in nanostructured batteries and supercapacitors. Electrochemistry Communications , 11, (11), 2089-2092. (doi:10.1016/j.elecom.2009.09.001).
Roberts, Matthew R., Vitins, Girts and Owen, John R. (2008) High-throughput studies of Li1−xMgx/2FePO4 and LiFe1−yMgyPO4 and the effect of carbon coating. Journal of Power Sources, 179, (2), 754-762. (doi:10.1016/j.jpowsour.2008.01.034).
Roberts, M.R., Vitins, G. and Owen, J.R. (2008) High-throughput studies of Li1-xMgx/2FePO4 and LiFe1-yMgyPO4 and the effect of carbon coating. Journal of Power Sources, 179, (2), 754-762. (doi:10.1016/j.jpowsour.2008.01.034).
Roberts, M.R., Spong, A. D., Vitins, G. and Owen, J.R. (2007) High throughput screening of the effect of carbon coating in LiFePO4 electrodes. Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 154, (10), A921-A928. (doi:10.1149/1.2763968).
Brace, K.M., Hayden, B.E., Russell, A.E. and Owen, J.R. (2006) A parallel optical screen for the rapid combinatorial electrochromic analysis of electrochemical materials. Advanced Materials, 18, (24), 3253-3257. (doi:10.1002/adma.200600786).
Reiman, Kenneth H., Brace, Karen M., Gordon-Smith, Toby J., Nandhakumar, Iris, Attard, George S. and Owen, John R. (2006) Lithium insertion into TiO2 from aqueous solution - facilitated by nanostructure. Electrochemistry Communications, 8, (4), 517-522. (doi:10.1016/j.elecom.2006.01.017).
Spong, Alan D., Vitins, Girts and Owen, John R. (2005) A solution-precursor synthesis of carbon-coated LiFePO4 for Li-ion cells. Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 152, (12), A2376-A2382. (doi: 10.1149/1.2120427).
Rose, A., South, O., Harvey, I., Diaz-Moreno, S., Owen, J R. and Russell, A.E. (2005) In situ time resolved studies of hydride and deuteride formation in Pd/C electrodes via energy dispersive X-ray absorption spectroscopy. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 7, (2), 366-372. (doi: 10.1039/b412066c).
Nelson, Phillip A. and Owen, John R. (2003) A high-performance supercapacitor/battery hybrid incorporating templated mesoporous electrodes. Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 150, (10), A1313-A1317. (doi:10.1149/1.1603247).
Le Gall, Thierry, Reiman, Kenneth H., Grossel, Martin C. and Owen, John R. (2003) Poly(2,5-dihydroxy-1,4-benzoquinone-3,6-methylene): a new organic polymer as positive electrode material for rechargeable lithium batteries. Journal of Power Sources, 119, 316-320. (doi: 10.1016/S0378-7753(03)00167-8).
Vitins, G., Raekelboom, E.A., Weller, M.T. and Owen, J.R. (2003) Li2CuO2 as an additive for capacity enhancement of lithium ion cells. Journal of Power Sources, 119, 938-942. (doi: 10.1016/S0378-7753(03)00236-2).
Spong, A.D., Vitins, G., Hayden, B.E., Russell, A.E. and Owen, J.R. (2003) Combinatorial arrays and parallel screening for positive electrode discovery. Journal of Power Sources, 119-121, 778-783. (doi:10.1016/S0378-7753(03)00252-0).
Nelson, Phillip A., Elliott, Joanne M., Attard, George S. and Owen, John R. (2002) Mesoporous nickel/nickel oxide-a nanoarchitectured electrode. Chemistry of Materials, 14, (2), 524-529. (doi:10.1021/cm011021a).
Fitt, A.D. and Owen, J.R. (2002) Simultaneous measurements of conductivity and thickness for polymer electrolyte films: a simulation study. Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, 538-539, 13-23. (doi:10.1016/S0022-0728(02)01174-9).
Sones, Collin L., Mailis, Sakellaris, Brocklesby, William S., Eason, Robert W. and Owen, John R. (2002) Differential etch rates in z-cut LiNbO3 for variable HF/HNO3 concentrations. Journal of Materials Chemistry, 12, (2), 295-298. (doi:10.1039/b106279b).
Raekelboom, E. A., Hector, A. L., Owen, J., Vitins, G. and Weller, M. T. (2001) Syntheses, structures, and preliminary electrochemistry of the layered lithium and sodium manganese(IV) oxides, A2Mn3O7. Chemistry of Materials, 13, (12), 4618-4623. (doi: 10.1021/cm011105j).
Raekelboom, E.A., Hector, A L., Weller, M.T. and Owen, J.R. (2001) Electrochemical properties and structures of the mixed-valence lithium cuprates Li3Cu2O4 and Li2NaCu2O4. Journal of Power Sources, 97-98, 465-468. (doi:10.1016/S0378-7753(01)00668-1).
 

Research

Research Interests

Research funding

2008-2011 “Superior energy and power density in Li-ion microbatteries”. EC- FP7 collaborative grant, €343k.

2007-2010 “Nanocatalysts for Lithium-Air Rechargeable Batteries” Qinetiq, I-CASE award.

2005-2008 “High throughput characterisation of polymer electrolytes”, Insight Faraday and Ilika Ltd., I-CASE award.

2007-2008 “Adventurous chemistry – a new generation of nanostructured surfaces”, EPSRC, £205k. Collaborative grant with staff in Electrochemistry and Surface Science Section.

2007- 2010 ”From Melts to Functional Frameworks”, EPSRC £320k. Collaborative grant with Prof Weller, University of Southampton School of Chemistry.

2005-2010 “End-to-End pipeline for chemical information: from the laboratory to literature and back again”. EPSRC £415k. Platform grant with Prof. Frey (Chemistry) and other staff at the University of Southampton.

Primary research group:  Electrochemistry

Research projects

Owen: High throughput discovery of electrochemical materials for energy conversion and storage

Owen: Nanostructured Electrode materials for batteries and supercapacitors

Contact

Professor John R Owen
Chemistry
University of Southampton
Highfield
Southampton
SO17 1BJ

Room Number: 29/7029

Telephone: (023) 8059 2184
Facsimile: (023) 8059 3781
Email: J.R.Owen@soton.ac.uk