Situated at a University with a world-class reputation in electrochemistry the Mathematical Electrochemistry Group interacts with a range of experimental groups and companies across a broad range of interests spanning battery design and semiconductor device modelling.
Research in Mathematical Electrochemistry focuses on lithium-ion batteries, novel solar cell technology and electrically excitable biological tissue. The former two areas are at the forefront of applied research into renewable energy while the latter is fundamental to the understanding of the nervous system and the electrical activity of the heart. The theme common to these topics is the motion of charge in electric fields, and via diffusion. This, in turn, leads to mathematical similarities in their description. The approach taken is to develop partial differential equation models, which encapsulate the known mechanisms, and to analyse these accounting for extremely complicated geometric effects and large variations in the parameters in the problem. Underlying mathematical concepts include asymptotic methods, homgenisation as well as numerical computations. Our aim is to apply mathematical techniques to problems of interest to practical scientists and engineers working in the field and to enable us to do so we have developed collaborations with electrochemists working on lithium-ion batteries, physicists working on solar celldesign and biologists investigating neuron behaviour.