Robert F. Savinell is a Distinguished University Professor and the George S. Dively Professor of Engineering at Case Western Reserve University. Prior to joining the university鈥檚 faculty in 1986, Savinell was a research engineer at Diamond Shamrock Corporation and then a member of the faculty of the University of Akron. Savinell was the director of the Ernest B. Yeager Center for Electrochemical Sciences at CWRU for ten years, and served as Dean of Engineering at CWRU for seven years. He has been a visiting professor at Yamanashi University in Japan, Denmark Technical University and MIT. Savinell has been engaged in electrochemical engineering research and development for more than 40 years.
Savinell鈥檚 research is directed at fundamental science and mechanistic issues of electrochemical processes, as well as electrochemical technology systems and device design, development, modeling and optimization. His research has addressed applications for energy conversion, energy storage, sensing, and electrochemical materials extraction and synthesis. Savinell is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of the Electrochemical Society. He is a fellow of the Electrochemical Society, fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and fellow of the International Society of Electrochemistry. In 2018 he was awarded the Department of Energy鈥檚 Emerging Frontiers Research Center grant, and he now directs the EFRC on Breakthrough Electrolytes on Energy Storage (BEES). In 2020, Savinell was awarded the Frank and Dorothy Humel Prize by CWRU for exceptional achievements in teaching, research and scholarly service that have benefited the community, the nation and the world. In 2022, the Electrochemical Society presented Savinell with the Vittorio De Nora Award.
Research Information
Research Interests
The overarching goals of my research program are to create electrochemical solutions to energy conversion, energy conservation, and energy storage challenges, including related environmental challenges of significance to industry and society, and to improve performance of electrochemical technologies in practice. My research focuses on understanding the thermodynamic, kinetic, and transport processes at electrochemical interfaces and within electrochemical systems through experimental and simulation approaches. The scope of my research program spans fundamental investigations through translational research towards commercial application. On-going projects include the following:
- Designing novel electrode structures to increase the plating capacity for hybrid flow batteries.
- Understanding conductivity and transport properties of slurry electrodes and the design factors for applications in flow batteries, flow electrochemical capacitors, and flow capacitance separation devices.
- Exploring new chemistries, electrolytes and materials for flow batteries and electrochemical capacitors.
- Developing tools and analysis to study performance issues in electrochemical devices, and to measure fundamental transport and kinetic properties of materials under realistic operating conditions.
- Investigations leading to the understanding of proton conductivity and stability limits of high temperature polymer electrolytes such as the water-less PBI/phosphoric acid system
Publications
- Bourke, A., Miller, M.A., Lynch, R.P., Gao, X., Landon, J., Wainright, J.S., Savinell, R.F., and D.N. Buckley, 鈥淓lectrode Kinetics of Vanadium Flow Batteries: Contrasting Responses of VII-VIII and VIV-VV to Electrochemical Pretreatment of Carbon鈥�, J. Electrochemical Society, 163(1), A5097-A5105 (2016).
- Petek, T.J., Hoyt, N.C., Savinell, R.F. and J.S. Wainright, 鈥淐haracterization of Slurry Electrodes Using Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy鈥�, Journal of Electrochemical Society, 163(1), A5001-A5009 (2016).
- Hoyt, Nathan C., Hawthorne, Krista L., Savinell, R.F. and J.S. Wainright, , 鈥淧lating utilization of carbon felt in a hybrid flow battery鈥�, Journal of Electrochemical Society, 163(1), A5041-A5048, (2016).
- Petek, T.J., Hoyt, N.C., Savinell, R.F. and J.S. Wainright, 鈥淪lurry Electrodes for Iron Plating in an All-Iron Flow Battery鈥�, Journal of Power Sources, 294, 620-626 (2015).
- Bourke, A., Miller, M.A., Lynch, R.P., Wainright, J.S., Savinell, R.F., and D.N. Buckley, 鈥淓ffect of cathodic and anodic treatments of glassy carbon on the electrode kinetics of VIV/VV oxidation-reduction鈥�, Journal of Electrochemical Society, 162(8), A1547-A1555 (2015).
- Hoyt, Nathaniel C., Wainright, Jesse S., and Robert F. Savinell, 鈥淐urrent Density Scaling in Electrochemical Flow Capacitors鈥�, Journal Electrochemical Society, 162(8), A1547-A1555 (2015).
- Ke, Xinyou, Alexander, Iwan D., Prahl, Joseph M. and Robert F. Savinell, 鈥淎 simple analytical model of coupled single flow channel over porous electrode in vanadium redox flow battery with serpentine flow channel鈥�, Journal of Power Sources, 288, 303-312 (2015).
- Hoyt, Nathaniel C., Wainright, Jesse S., and Robert F. Savinell, 鈥淢athematical modeling of electrochemical flow capacitors鈥�, Journal of Electrochemical Society, 162 (4), A652-A657 (2015).
- Suttil, J.A., Kucharyson, J.F., Escalante-Garcia, I.L., Cabrera, P.J., James, B.R., Savinell, R.F., Sanford, M.S., and L.T. Thompson, 鈥淢etal Acetylacetonate Complexes for High Energy Density Non-Aqueous Redox Flow Batteries鈥�, Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 3(15), 7929-7938, (2015).
- Escalante-Garcia, I.L., Wainright, J.S., Thompson, L.T. and R.F. Savinell, 鈥淧erformance of a non-aqueous vanadium acetylacetonate prototype redox flow battery: Examination of separators and capacity decay鈥�, J. Electrochem. Soc., 162(3), A363-A372 (2015).
- Hawthorne, K.L., Petek, T.J., Miller, M.A., Wainright, J.S. and R.F. Savinell, 鈥淎n investigation into factors affecting the iron plating reaction for an all-iron flow battery鈥�, J. Elecrochem. Society162 (1), A108-A113 (2015).
- Hawthorne, K.L., Wainright, J.S. and R.F. Savinell, 鈥淪tudies of iron-ligand complexes for an all-iron flow battery application鈥�, J. Electrochem. Soc., 161(10), A1662-A1671 (2014)
- Hawthorne, K.L., Wainright, J.S. and R.F. Savinell, 鈥滿aximizing plating density and efficiency for a negative deposition reaction in a flow battery鈥�, J. Power Sources, 269, 216-224 (2014).
- Aili, D., Savinell, R.F., Jensen, J.O., Cleemann, L.N., Bjerrum, N.J. and Q.F. Li, 鈥淭he electrochemical behavior of phosphoric-acid doped poly(benzimicazole) membranes鈥�, Chemelectrochem, 1 (9), 1471-1475 (2014).
- Ke, Xinhyou, Alexander, J. Iwan, and R.F. Savinell, 鈥淔low distribution and maximum current density studies in redox flow batteries with single passage of the serpentine flow channel鈥� , Journal of Power Sources, 270, 646-657 (2014).
- Escalante-Garcia, I., Wainright, J.S., and R.F. Savinell, 鈥淐u Monolayer on Au/C and Pt/C for the Electrochemical Reduction of CO2 to Hydrocarbons鈥�, Electrochemical Society Transactions, 50(49), 95-101 (2013).