Ram Deivanayagam, Ph.D.
Battery Materials Engineer | Electrochemist

I'm a materials engineer with 5 years of industry experience in developing and benchmarking cell materials & components for lithium-ion batteries (LIB) and evaluating their performance in lab and pilot scales. I currently work at Wildcat Discovery Technologies as a lead scientist.
My expertise spans synthesis, characterization & e-chem evaluation of transition metal oxides and polymer composites for LIB electrode/electrolyte applications, electrode processing & engineering, cell assembly in various sizes & form factors, and design of a wide range of electrochemistry experiments geared towards battery applications.
I've led customer projects on material development, electrode formulation benchmarking & optimization, and slurry quality improvement over the years and have helped customers with concept validation, lab-scale prototyping, and pilot line production.
I hold a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois Chicago in mechanical engineering with a focus on materials development for lithium-ion and beyond-lithium-ion batteries. My Ph.D. research at the NanoEngineering Lab dealt with developing solid polymer composite electrolytes for lithium and magnesium batteries and evaluating their performance in lab scale.
Experimental skills
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Cell Assembly & Teardown:
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Small-format cells (<50 mAh): Assembly and testing
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Pouch & 18650/21700 cells: Teardown and failure analysis
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Performance evaluation with potentiostats/galvanostats and battery cyclers
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Materials synthesis:
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Polymer blends & nanocomposites for electrolyte applications
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Transition metal oxides through sol-gel & hydrothermal methods for anode/cathode applications
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Carbon nanotubes & carbon composites through Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD)
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Characterization techniques:
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Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) Analysis, Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Raman Spectroscopy, X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), BET surface/pore analysis
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Research Interests & Experience
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Energy storage:
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Batteries: Lithium-ion, lithium-metal, sodium-ion, and magnesium batteries
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Electrolytes: Solid polymers, polymer-ceramic composites, and polymer nanocomposite electrolytes
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Materials:
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Nanomaterials and transition metal oxides for application as rechargeable battery anodes/cathodes
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Carbon nanotubes/carbon composites as additives for battery electrodes
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3D nano-architectures for battery electrodes
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