“Ultra materials” spark ideas for a more efficient power grid

When electricity travels from its source to your home, it undergoes several conversion processes as it moves through the power grid. Ensuring the quality of the electronic devices used to manage and convert power is crucial to maintaining the integrity of the power grid as a whole.

Arizona State University will receive $12.4 million from the U.S. Department of Energy for an Energy Frontier Research Center, or EFRC, to study a new class of semiconductor materials that will make power conversion more compact and efficient. Researchers will explore the synthesis and properties of these materials and their applications in electronic devices.

The new research center at ASU will be home to a four-year project titled, “Ultra Materials for a Resilient, Smart Electricity Grid,” which is a multidisciplinary effort between faculty members in the Department of Physics and the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, one of the six schools in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.

The DOE hosts a competition every two to four years to award EFRCs to institutions and renew awards to existing centers. This year, the DOE granted a total of $100 million in funding for 10 institutional EFRCs.