Professor Anthony R West
FRSE, FRSC, FInstP, FIMMM
School of Chemical, Materials and Biological Engineering
Professor of Electroceramics and Solid State Chemistry


+44 114 222 5501
Full contact details
School of Chemical, Materials and Biological Engineering
Sir Robert Hadfield Building
Mappin Street
葫芦影业
S1 3JD
- Profile
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Tony West obtained his BSc degree in Chemistry at University College Swansea and his PhD at the University of Aberdeen, where he worked with Professor F. P. Glasser on silicate chemistry and was appointed as a lecturer in 1971. He developed a lifetime interest in the then-emerging field of solid-state chemistry with a special interest in the synthesis of new oxide materials, their crystal structures and electrical properties. Awarded a DSc from Aberdeen in 1984, he became Professor of Chemistry in 1989 before moving to the University of 葫芦影业's Department of Materials Science and Engineering as Head of Department, from 1999 until 2007.
Tony was founding editor of the Journal of Materials Chemistry and established the Materials Chemistry Forum, now the Materials Chemistry Division of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He organised the First International Conference on Materials Chemistry, MCI, in Aberdeen, 1993, and co-organised the first Materials Discussion, MDI, in Bordeaux, 1998. He also served as President of the Inorganic Chemistry Division of IUPAC, 2004鈥2007.
Tony is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Institute of Physics, the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He has received several awards over the years, including an Industrial Award in Solid State Chemistry from the RSC (1996), the Griffiths Medal and Prize from the IOM3 (2008), the Epsilon de Oro Award from the Spanish Society of Glass and Ceramics (2007) and the Chemical Record Lectureship from the Chemical Societies of Japan (2009). He was awarded the 2013 John B. Goodenough Award in Materials Chemistry by the RSC, a lifetime award which recognises exceptional and sustained contributions to the field of materials chemistry.
He has authored >450 research publications and best-selling books on solid-state chemistry.
- Research interests
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I make new oxide materials, determine their crystal structures and measure their electrical properties, which may include ionic conductivity, semiconductivity and resistive switching.
I work on materials development for lithium batteries to understand the factors that lead to high capacities and long lifetimes and especially, that include the oxygen anion as a redox-active contributor to battery performance. I have long-standing interest in developing the impedance spectroscopy technique to understand the relation between structure, composition and electrical properties of electroceramics and their applications as electrodes and electrolytes in fuel cells, capacitors and sensors.
Key research areas:
- Synthesis and crystal structure determination of new oxide materials
- Use of phase diagrams to determine mechanisms of doping and solid solution formation and to study polymorphism of inorganic and organic (amino acid-based) materials
- Electrical property measurements, especially using impedance spectroscopy. to characterise ceramics and measure their conductivity and permittivity
- Electrochemical testing of materials for possible use as anodes or cathodes in lithium-ion batteries
Key projects:
- Development of new materials for lithium battery applications, including spinels such as LiCoMnO4, which exhibit a 5V redox couple Co3+/4+ on lithium (de) intercalation
- synthesis and characterisation of new rare earth ion-doped barium titanate, BaTiO3, which has a room temperature permittivity of ~20,000 when doped with La (In collaboration with Dr Derek Sinclair)
- Synthesis and characterisation of new solid electrolytes (mainly Li+ and 0= ion conductors)
- Understanding the structure-property correlations that control the performance of zinc oxide varistors and barium titanate positive temperature coefficient of resistance devices
- Synthesis of novel oxides with tetragonal tungsten bronze structure with relaxor ferroelectric character for possible capacitor and microwave dielectric applications
- Synthesis of high purity electroceramics by sol-gel methods (in collaboration with Univ. Jaume I, Spain)
- Development of novel memristive phenomena for memory and switching applications.
- Publications
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Books
Journal articles
2 Fe1.4 Nb0.6 Or . Key Engineering Materials(136 PART 2), 1397-1400.
Nonstoichiometry and electrical properties of the perovskite Ca0.5-3x RE0.5+x TiO3 : RE=Pr,Nd, x鈮0.05, from powder neutron diffraction data. Materials Science Forum, 228-231(PART 2), 701-704.
The crystal structures of Li+ conducting phases Li2 O-Ga2 O3 -SiO2 . British ceramic. Transactions and journal, 88(1), 17-20.
Phase relations in the system Li12 Al14 O33 for high oxide ion conductivity. British ceramic. Transactions and journal, 87(6), 191-194.
Ceramic processing of Ca2 TiO3 -LiNbO3 , Li2 TiO3 -LiTaO3 and Li2 TiO3 -LiNbO3 -LiTaO3 .. Transactions & Journal of the British Ceramic Society, 83(5), 143-145.
Phase equilibria in the systems Li2 O-Na2 O- ZrO2 and Li2 O-Al2 O3 -ZrO2 .. Transactions & Journal of the British Ceramic Society, 81, 118-121.
Subsolidus phase equilibria in the systems Li2 O - ZrO2 - SiO2 .. Transactions & Journal of the British Ceramic Society, 80, 91-96.
Preliminary study of the system Li
Chapters
Conference proceedings papers
3 SbO4 -CuO. Materials Research Society Symposium - Proceedings, Vol. 453 (pp 159-164)
System Li
Reports
Other
Preprints