Ian Hosein
Hosein’s research explores novel ways to harness light to make materials used in solar energy and heat conversion, electrochemical energy storage, chemical separation and smart coatings. His research group’s work spans the spectrum from fundamental formation mechanisms in matter, to materials fabrication to application-driven research and development. The DNI grant will support Hosein’s research to control the synthesis of multicomponent polymeric materials using white light for two years. The work will explore processing conditions that produce novel composite structures and advanced material properties critical for use in lithium-ion batteries, thermoelectrics and oil-water separation.
“Multicomponent polymeric materials are found in technologies all around us, and their properties are intimately tied to their structure. Scalably and precisely controlling how each polymer component organizes during manufacturing has remained a significant challenge, but it is crucial to improving their performance,” says Hosein. “Our group has a new way to use common light sources, such as lamps or LEDs, to stimulate and control the movement of different components during processing. Our aim now is to closely study how this phenomenon works in order gain a general understanding that will apply to a wide range of composite materials. This grant enables us to forge ahead in this exciting direction.”
Hosein is an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering. He completed his graduate studies at Cornell University in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. He was awarded a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada fellowship in support of his graduate studies. After his doctoral work, Hosein completed post-doctoral positions at the University of Waterloo and McMaster University.
His research aims to provide materials-based solutions that address critical challenges in clean energy production and storage, environmental remediation and clean up, and sustainability. The present focus is on creating new materials from both organic and inorganic systems, with an emphasis on directed self-organization, bio-inspired structures and enhancing material properties.
Hosein is also editor-in-chief for the journal Canadian Chemical Transactions and an editor for the open-access journal Scientific Reports.