Rachid Yazami

Rachid Yazami
Born	Fes, Morocco
Residence	Singapore
Citizenship	French
Nationality	Moroccan
Fields	Materials Science and Engineering
Institutions	Nanyang Technological University
Alma mater	Grenoble Institute of Technology
Known for	Research on lithium ion batteries|Lithium-carbon fluoride batteries|Fluoride Ion Batteries

A native of Fes, Morocco, Rachid Yazami is a scientist best known for his research on lithium ion batteries|Lithium-carbon fluoride batteries|Fluoride Ion Batteries.

Education

Yazami is a 1978 graduate of the Grenoble Institute of Technology, where he also received a Ph. D. degree in 1985(<refhttp://www.mse.ntu.edu.sg/AboutUs/Organisation/Pages/VisitingStaff.aspx)

Battery research

Rachid Yazami in the battery lab at Caltech

Yazami's research project included a study of graphite intercalation compounds for lithium battery applications. In 1985 he joined the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)as a Research Associate. He was later promoted to a Research Director (Professor) in 1998.

In 1980 Yazami was the first to discover the reversible intercalation of lithium into graphite in an electrochemical cell using a polymer electrolyte. Later this discovery led to the lithium-graphite anode now used in commercial lithium ion batteries, a US$10B value market. Yazami also worked on other forms of graphite materials for cathode application in lithium batteries, including graphite oxide and graphite fluoride. In 2007 he founded a start-up company in California to develop and commercialize his discoveries on fluorine based batteries.

While holding a Research Director position with the CNRS in France, Yazami has served as a Visiting Associate at the California Institute of Technology between 2000 and 2010 where he conducted cooperative research on electrode materials including nanostructured materials such as carbon nanotubes, nano-silicon and nano-germanium anodes. His research on cathode materials included thermodynamics studies of phase transitions in lithiated transition metal oxides and phosphates. He also developed a new electrochemical technique based on thermodynamics measurements that can apply to extend batteries life and enhance their safety.

Since September 2010 Yazami was appointed a Visiting Professor at the School of Materials Science and Engineering of the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. He also serves as the Director of Battery Programs at the Energy Research Institute (ERIAN). In 2011 Yazami founded a new start-up company in Singapore, KVI,PTE LTD to develop novel equipments and components to enhance battery performance and safety.

From recent experimental data Yazami theorized that in a sealed rechargeable battery cell, such as a lithium ion battery, two different states of charge cannot have simultaneously the same entropy and the same enthalpy values. This opens a venue for accurate assessment of a battery state of charge owing to thermodynamics measurements developed by him, known as the Yazami Theorem.

Awards and writing

Yazami is the co-author involved in over 200 published papers and the co-inventor of over 50 patents related to lithium primary and rechargeable batteries and on new battery chemistry based on fluoride ion. He served as the President of the International Battery Association (IBA) and as a Member of International Scientific Advisory Board of several international meetings, including the International Meetings on Lithium Batteries (IMLB). Yazami is the recipient of several research awards, including with NATO (Science for Peace Award), NASA ( two Technical Innovation Awards), IBA (Research Award) and the Hawaii Battery Conference. He is the co-founder of CFX Battery, Inc. a Caltech-CNRS start up company in Azusa, Californiaand of KVI PTE LTD in Singapore. Yazami is the winner of 2012 IEEE Medal for Environmental and Safety Technologies.

References

3. http://www.mse.ntu.edu.sg/AboutUs/Organisation/Pages/VisitingStaff.aspx