Dr. Walker is CO-PI on a $20M 5 year NSF Phase II award from the Division of Chemistry along with Cal Tech and MIT. The alliance is called “Powering the Planet”. This Chemical Bonding Center is devoted to elucidating some basic science aspects of solar energy research, in particular to explore fundamental aspects of solar-driven splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen.
Dr. Walker is BASF Endowed Professor of Chemistry, Southern University and A&M College. He obtained is Ph.D. from Tulane University, New Orleans, LA., Inorganic Chemistry, in 1998 and his BS in Chemistry from Southern University, Baton Rouge, LA in1993.
Professor Walker is a solid-state, inorganic chemist/materials scientist at Southern University in Baton Rouge, LA, and a 2005 recipient of the NSF-CAREER award. His research is focused on understanding the mechanisms that govern ion transport in perovskites and related oxides (PRO) with interesting and useful ionic transport properties. His group conducts experiments involving the synthesis of nanocrystalline PROs prepared with a soft-chemical method that we have developed. In addition, his research involves the optimization of our soft chemical for production particles with uniform size and distribution. He investigates the non-isothermal kinetic parameters such as the activation energy (Ea) and pre-exponential factor (A) using several iso-conversional methods for optimization of our soft-chemical synthesis method. We study the nanocrystalline PROs with varying compositions and crystallite size that have been prepared and characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) in conjunction with impedance spectroscopy to investigate the relationship between structure, composition, and physical properties (ion transport in particular). Specifically, the structural and compositional factors that influence ionic conductivity are the target of his investigations.
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