Alex Rettie

Associate Professor

Biography

Alex Rettie is a Lecturer in Electrochemical Energy Storage and Conversion at UCL since January 2019. Prior to joining UCL, he was a post-doc at Argonne National Laboratory where he focused on materials design and total scattering techniques. He received his Ph.D. (Chemical Engineering) from the University of Texas at Austin in 2015, investigating metal oxide photoelectrodes and his M.Eng. degree (Chemical Engineering) from the University of Edinburgh.

Teaching Summary 

I am passionate about the role of sustainability in engineering education, as evidenced by a UCL Education award in this area. I teach modules around decarbonisation of key industrial sectors, such as transport (Advanced Propulsion Systems, CENG0054) and energy production, and am Programme Director for the MSc in Advanced Propulsion at UCL EAST.

Research Summary

My research focuses on the experimental discovery and characterisation of electrochemical energy materials and their incorporation into devices, with a focus on electronic and ionic charge transport. Current research areas include: lithium-sulfur and solid-state batteries, discovery of solid electrolytes and hopping transport in complex metal oxides. Additionally, I use advanced scattering techniques (x-ray, neutron and electron) to understand disorder in energy materials via in situ and operando approaches.

Awards 

2021

Sustainability Education Award (highly commended), UCL, UK

2019

STFC Futures Early Career Award, Science and Technology Facilities Council, UK

2009

Class Medal (highest overall grade), Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Edinburgh, UK

Education

2015

Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, USA

2009

M.Eng. Chemical Engineering, University of Edinburgh

Professional Affiliations  

• FHEA – member of HEA

Publications

• Vadhva et al., Towards optimised cell design of thin film silicon-based solid-state batteries via modelling and experimental characterisation," Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 2022, 169 (10), 100525
   
• Soni et al., “Lithium-sulfur battery diagnostics through distribution of relaxation times analysis”, Energy Storage Materials, 2022, 51, 97-107
   
• Rettie et al., “A two-dimensional type I superionic conductor”, Nature Materials, 2021, 20, 1683–1688
   
• Vadhva et al.,” Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy for All‐Solid‐State Batteries: Theory, Methods and Future Outlook”, ChemElectroChem, 2021, 8 (11), 1930-1947
   
• Lin et al., “Ultralow thermal conductivity, multiband electronic structure and high thermoelectric figure of merit in TlCuSe”, Advanced Materials, 2021, 33 (44), 2104908

See more publications.