Weiwei Zhang Receives JPED Editor Choice Award

Weiwei Zhang, PhD, Material Scientist at Thermo-Calc Software, was awarded for her paper “Thermodynamic Modeling of the La-Co-O System” (Authors: Weiwei Zhang, Erwin Povoden-Karadeniz, Huixia Xu & Ming Chen). It was recognized as one of six papers in the annual JPED Editors’ Choice Awards. Dr. Zhang’s paper is based on a chapter from her PhD thesis and was edited for publication in the “Journal of Phase Equilibria and Diffusion”.

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Weiwei Zhang, PhD, Material Scientist at Thermo-Calc Software

As a master student, Dr. Zhang studied the CALPHAD method. She found a PhD opportunity to study the degradation mechanisms of LSCF (La1−xSrxCo1−yFeyO3−δ) cathodes of the Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC).

 

“One of the most important degradation mechanisms of LSCF is the material instability, and I figured that CALPHAD would be a good method for this kind of investigations,” she explains.

During her PhD studies, she developed a self-consistent thermodynamic database of the La-Sr-Co-Fe-O system using the CALPHAD method. The database can be used to analyze the phase stability of the LSC/LSCF materials. Together with experimental investigations on phase stability of LSC, LSCF and LSCF/CGO composites, the stability range of LSCF at various composition, partial pressure and temperature conditions were mapped out.

The awarded paper is about the development of a database for La-Co-O system, which can be used for calculating phase equilibria and thermodynamic properties at temperatures of 298-3000 K and oxygen partial pressure of 10−20 − 1 bar. Thereby, material composition optimization for various applications are enabled. The intention of her PhD work was to investigate the SOFC materials. This can also be used in areas such as hydrogenation oxidation catalyst, oxygen separation membranes and Magneto Hydrodynamic (MHD) electrodes.

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Dr. Zhang’s research focuses on Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC), which have a wide variety of applications, from use as auxiliary power units in vehicles to stationary power generation with outputs from 100 W to 2 MW.

“I am very happy that the paper was selected as one of the six best papers by the editors. It is my first paper award, so it is very special to me,” Dr. Zhang confirms. “Since 2013, when my PhD was published, my research area is much broader. Currently, I am working with two database projects. One is for TBC/EBC materials. The other is for fuel cladding and structural materials.”

Enjoying the success of the JPED Editor Choice Awards, she also looks forward to the future: “I have a job that I enjoy very much, and a happy family. I hope that my research and work will be helpful to the materials development and to the industry,” Dr. Zhang concludes.

The complete list of The 2019 JPED Editors’ Choice Awards was published in the “Journal of Phase Equilibria” in April 2020. The selection process, according to Editor-in-Chief John Morral and Deputy Editor Dr. Ursula Kattner, looks at several factors, where quality of the research, text and figures, as well as originality and relevance to the field all are considered.

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