Dr. Isaac Abrahams
Dr Abrahams’ research is in the area solid state and structural chemistry with over 240 papers published in this area. Much of his work has been in the field of energy materials including ionically conducting solids for application in batteries, fuel cells and gas sensors and ferroelectric materials for lead-free high power energy storage systems.
In addition to the synthesis of new materials, Dr Abrahams specialises in defect structure analysis in materials using techniques such as neutron and X-ray powder diffraction. This includes the study of local order using reverse Monte Carlo modelling of total scattering data. In conjunction with a.c. impedance spectroscopy studies has used these techniques to examine structure-conductivity relationships and conductivity mechanisms in a variety of materials, most notably oxide ion conducting systems for solid oxide fuel cells.
In addition to work on crystalline solids, the Abrahams group is very much involved in the study of amorphous solids for applications as biomedical materials. This includes work on novel glasses for glass ionomer cements for periodontological applications, including extensive use of the high-resolution solid-state NMR facilities at QMUL for structural characterisation.
As part of its research, the Abrahams group makes are regular users of EPSRC central facilities such as Diamond and ISIS at the Rutherford-Appleton Laboratories and the ILL at Grenoble.
Dr Abrahams is director the Central X-ray Diffraction facility (XDF), at Queen Mary, which offers a diffraction service as part of the Materials Research Network. View Isaac's profile on the Materials Research Network website.