Research Fellow
Dr Ali Jalili
Engineering
School of Chemical Engineering
Dr. Ali Jalili is an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow at School of Chemical Engineering in University of New South Wales Sydney. He received his PhD from the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute (IPRI) at the University of Wollongong, conducting research on additive manufacturing of electromaterials for electrochemical device fabrication under the supervision of ARC Laureate Fellow and the director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES), Prof. Gordon G. Wallace in 2013. Following his Ph.D. graduation, he has received graphene development fellowship from ACES, where he was closely working with various nodes of ACES and the materials node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF). This position gave him the opportunity to interact with a larger network of researchers and exposed him to research areas outside of his expertise, instigating new project ideas and collaborations. At 2017, He has joined Prof. Calum Drummond’s research group at RMIT as a vice-chancellor's postdoctoral fellow to explore biomimetic systems for tailor-making a vast range of liquid crystalline-based 3D printing inks. At 2018, he has joined ARC Laureate Fellow Prof. Douglas MacFarlane’s laboratory at Monash University as a visiting fellow to conduct research on electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction. From 2019, he has joined ARC Laureate Fellow Prof. Rose Amal’s Particles and Catalysis Research Group to continue research on nitrogen reduction to ammonia with the ARC DECRA Fellowship.
E-mail
Location
Room 303, Tyree Energy Technologies Building, UNSW Sydney
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2019: UNSW Sydney Startup Fund, $215,576.
2018: ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award, $368,446.
2017: Vice Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow Award from RMIT University, $326,000.
2015: The Australian Institute for Innovative Materials (AIIM) Collaborative Grant, $20,000.
2014: The Australian Institute for Innovative Materials (AIIM) for Gold Grant, $12,000.
Travel award from Australia Academy of Sciences (2016).
Best poster award from the Fiber Society (2013).
My research has focused on additive manufacturing techniques (3D printing and fiber spinning) for device fabrication from organic and non-organic nanomaterials, such as conducting polymers, carbon nanotubes and atomically thin two-dimensional (2D) materials such as graphene and layered transition metal dichalcogenide. This has included translation of nano-electromaterials into multifunctional macrostructures while preserving their inherent nanoscale properties using fiber spinning, electrospinning, printing (ink-jet and sof-3D) and coatings. I am utilizing soft self-assembly of atomically thin 2D electromaterials and biomimetic systems to develop self-oriented scaffold electrodes for sustainable energy, energy storage & conversion, sensors, electrocatalysis, and bionic applications.
Currently, I am utilizing biomimetic systems for tailor-making and self-oriented 3D printed structures for environmental electrochemical conversion of nitrogen to ammonia. This project aims to achieve a highly active electrochemical catalytic system for ammonia production from atmospheric nitrogen under ambient conditions. Ammonia is essential for plant growth and food production but its synthesis is energy intensive, eco-destructive and costly. The project will design a functional device featuring a catalyst that will not only provide insights into the fundamentals of nitrogen reduction but also a sustainable and cost-effective production of ammonia, a potential key to future world food supply and renewable energy.