How Materials Science Can Help Create a Greener Future - with Saiful Islam

Saiful Islam argues that advances in green technology need to be preceded by advances in materials science.

The supply of clean sustainable energy is one of the greatest challenges of our time. Better batteries for electric cars and solar power for homes require advances in new materials and underpinning science. Using 3D glasses, Saiful Islam will show how atomic-scale modelling and structural chemistry are helping us explore new energy materials for a low carbon future.

Saiful has asked the Q&A not to be published.

Saiful Islam is Professor of Materials Chemistry at the University of Bath and presented the 80th anniversary Christmas Lectures in 2016 on the theme of energy.

This discourse was filmed at the Ri on 25 January 2019.

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A very special thank you to our Patreon supporters who help make these videos happen, especially:
Dave Ostler, David Lindo, Greg Nagel, Ivan Korolev, John Pollock, Lester Su, Osian Gwyn Williams, Radu Tizu, Rebecca Pan, Robert Hillier, Roger Baker, Sergei Solovev, and Will Knott
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[susanconnor]

Fantastic lecture - it achieved it's purpose of appealing to a wide audience. You didn't need any knowledge of the subject before watching as there was enough introductory material to put in context. I watched this with my 91 year old mother in law, my teenage son and my non-scientist husband. I myself am a scientist working in a different field. All of us took something from the lecture and were interested throughout. I recommend this as a good watch.

[louisegould]

It's wonderful that this resource is online and accessible to all - beyond the 400 or so lucky individuals who were in the audience at what was an extremely enjoyable event. The attendees were peppered with Faraday Institution HQ staff and researchers who work in this field, but Saiful has such a gift of making science accessible and engaging to everyone - young or old - whether they have a scientific background or not. Well worth a watch.

[laurencarter]

Another brilliant Ri talk from Saiful on one of the toughest challenges of the modern world. Congratulations!!

[timmays]

Great lecture form an absoluetly top class scientist who knows his stuff and can get across the key points with a sense of humour. Thank you.

[staaky]

One of the best speakers on Ri, loved the puns.

[henryroberts]

So many great achievements and yet John still isn't deemed Goodenough for the Nobel Prize?

[MostlyPennyCat]

Moltex Energy's SSR salt cooled reactor can vary it's output between 150MW and a few GW by melting a sodium vat.
It uses the heat from the reactor and/or hot salt to run its turbine.
High temp gas turbines too.
And it's hot fast neutrons too, great for directly making hydrogen and desalinating water (important here in the UK)

[Wazoo]

8 minutes for light to get to Earth from the Sun not 8 seconds for those who didn't know.

[DrAdnan]

I have a family friend with the same name so I got excited haha. Unfortunately, it wasn’t him, but it was a great talk regardless!

[lufias]

Excellent clear talk. Liked the slides on battery and solar cell materials (and the puns!).

[gravijta]

A well conducted lecture, charged with inspirational intellect. The current state of solar energy is amazing! Also, with all those puns, I wouldn't be shocked if Saiful is a potential fan of Master Thereon.

[randramb]

8 light seconds, damn, they've implemented significant upgrades to the speed!

[aussiebloke]

First Hydrogen Atom: "Good heavens, I've lost an electron!"
Second Hydrogen Atom: "Are you sure?"
First Hydrogen Atom: "I'm POSITIVE!"

(Sorry, couldn't resist!) :-D

[ThunderKat]

24:42 I don't understand that graphic...WattHour/Kilogram of material, from 265 efficient to 300 efficient and the car can doble the miles?
I'm just going to guess he didn't mention something else like lighter materials to build the car and more efficient engines with less wasted energy and all that.

[blissbrain]

JUST A HEADS UP TO Ri. your intro is very tortuous to the sensory systems of us highly sensitive people. it almost drives me away from the channel.

[spoddie]

22:10 "... he had to fly back to Russia ..."
LOL, not in 1889 he didn't.

[mikaelturnip]

Eight seconds, for sunlight to reach earth? I think not.

[jeromevuarand]

I was wondering why he didn't apologize for the the messed up slides, but they are only in the video, the ones projected in the room are fine. So it's the video editor's fault. Slide presentation software often handle changing aspect ratios very poorly. Since the RI is most likely to keep projecting in 4/3 aspect ratio, and the videos are gonna stay at 16/9, you should really be more careful in the future.

[MostlyPennyCat]

Electric cars and short journeys are all well and good.
But nobody can afford more than renting a crappy flat with no parking or less parking spaces than how many flats there are.
I own my flat, we have 15 parking spaces and 50 flats and the housing association will never install charging points unless it's at gunpoint.

They won't even fund our hospitals, police and firemen anymore.

When are they ever going to spend the umpty billion pounds on digging up all the pavements and car parks, both public and private, for anybody but those who can afford to live in a house with a garage in a village or suburb.

You know, almost all the people born after 1980.

A token handful of barely standardized, usually broken, charging points at a Welcome Break aren't going to cut it.

Oh and unless we're lucky our economy is about to be sacrificed in the name of some angry Brexiteers. Can't see the surviving corporations buying me a charging point.

[TarisRedwing]

31 mins in and he finally talks about the subject of the video. Come on now.