Robert Lynch

Robert Lynch is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Physics at the University of Limerick, course director of the Department’s flagship programme, the BSc in Applied Physics, Adjunct Associate Professor of Engineering at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio and the Lead Investigator in the Energy Storage and Semiconductor Technology Research Group at the Department of Physics and the Bernal Institute. Robert is dedicated to both undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and to advancing education through research.  His research group has both international and national collaborations with industry and academia in the areas of sensors for battery systems, research and development of vanadium and iron flow batteries, in-situ stress and morphology analysis of thin films formed during metallisation, formation of porous semiconductors and metal oxides, research and development of reference electrodes for hostile environments, and modelling and stabilisation of electricity grids. Furthermore, their research has facilitated significant advances including increasing the energy density of vanadium flow batteries (VFBs) (Buckley et al. 2022), increasing the power density of VFBs (Bourke et. al. 2016 and Al-Hajji et. al. 2022), demonstrating and verifying the first hybrid battery-flywheel prototype for grid stabilization in Europe, comprehensively explaining the mechanism of pore formation during anodisation of indium phosphide (Quill et. al. 2019), modelling the stability of charged VFB electrolytes (Oboroceanu et. al. 2019 and Buckley et. al. 2021), succinctly explaining the spectroscopic behaviour of VFB electrolytes (Rybalchenko et. al. 2022) and installation of over 265 MW of battery and synchronous condenser grid stabilisation projects in Co. Offaly.

Modules Taught:

• PH4131 – Mechanics, Heat, Electricity and Magnetism (1^st year physics)
• PH4102 – Waves, Light and Modern Physics (1^st and 3^rd year)
• PH4092 – Semiconductor Devices (1^st and 3^rd year)
• PH4051 – Measurement of Properties of Matter (1^st and 3^rd year)
• PH4613 – Forces, Potentials and Fields (2^nd and 3^rd year)
• PH6001 – MSc Mini Research Project (MSc Applied Physics)

Research Interests:

• Energy Storage and Grid Stabilisation
• Optical Monitoring of Vanadium Flow Batteries (VFBs)
• High Energy Density Electrolyte for VFBs
• Specialist Reference Electrodes for Hostile Environments
• Anodisation of Semiconductors and Metals (i.e. Porous InP and TiO2 nanotubes)
• In-situ Stress Analysis during Metal Deposition