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K. M. Abraham (scientist)

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K. M. Abraham (born January 17, 1945) , known as Kuzhikalail. M. Abraham in official documents, is Research Professor at Center for Renewable Energy Technologies, at Northeastern University . He is recognized for contributions to the development of rechargeable Lithium batteries, lithium-ion polymer batteries and the invention of the lithium-air battery.

Contents

Early Life & Education

Abraham was born in 1945 in Ranny, in the south Indian state of Kerala, the oldest of nine children of Kuzhikalail Abraham Mathew and Aleyamma Chacko Mathew. He received his primary and secondary school education in Ranny,and then pursued college education at St. Berchmans College, in Changanacherry in Kerala State, earning B.Sc. and M. Sc degrees in chemistry in 1965 and 1967, respectively.

He came to the United States in 1968 for graduate studies and was awarded the Ph.D. degree in Chemistry in 1973 from Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts. He conducted post-doctoral research at Vanderbilt University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He published many papers from this early research concerned with inorganic synthesis, nmr spectroscopy and materials characterization.

Career

He spent the first 22 years of his career at EIC Laboratories, Inc., Norwood, Massachusetts (1976-1997) as Senior Scientist, Group Leader, and Vice President and Director of Battery Research and Development. His major contributions to lithium battery technologies were made from EIC. He subsequently was President of Covalent Associates, Inc, Woburn, MA from 1997 to 2000. After that, he was appointed Research Professor at Center for Renewable Energy Technologies, Northeastern University, in Boston, Massachusetts where he supervises the thesis work of graduate students. He is also the principal of E-KEM Sciences, a battery consulting company in Needham, Massachusetts.

Lithium Battery Research and Development

Abraham has been involved with the research and development of rechargeable Lithium battery technologies from its infancy and has made many pioneering contributions to the growth of rechargeable lithium and lithium ion batteries. He also made contributions to the development of rechargeable sodium batteries that operate at moderately elevated temperatures, and to the improved understanding of the chemistry, performance and safety of several lithium primary batteries. These contributions are reported in more than 150 journal publications, fifteen U.S. patents, many meeting presentations and meeting proceeding publications. Highlights of his research include:

  • First practical rechargeable lithium battery with long cycle life. These batteries are the precursors to today’s Li-ion batteries
  • First Rechargeable Lithium-PolySulfide battery. Demonstrated the first rechargeable Li-S battery which is currently developed world-wide
  • Moderate temperature rechargeable sodium batteries: Demonstrated the first rechargeable Na batteries with intercalation electrodes, and metal sulfides and oxides in conjunction with molten salt electrolytes
  • Pioneering studies of the key role of micro porous polymer separators on the performance and safety of Li batteries
  • Pioneering studies leading to the development of highly conductive polymer electrolytes which together with the separator technology described below are used to construct today’s Li-ion polymer batteries
  • Preparation and Li-ion battery performance studies of porous polymer separator membrane-supported polymer electrolytes, which form the basis of commercial Li-ion batteries
  • Chemical shuttle reagents for overcharge protection of Li-ion batteries. Introduced the concept of redox shuttle reagents for overcharge protection of Li-ion batteries
  • Invented the Rechargeable lithium-air battery which is being pursued worldwide

    • He is the cofounder of Modular Energy Devices, a Li-ion battery company developing large format Li-ion batteries for telecom and cable-TV power backup applications. The company was acquired by EnerSys, the biggest lead-acid battery company in the world. More than 2000 battery packs are deployed in telecom installations around the world.

    Patents

    Abraham has sixteen US patents, on materials and processes for primary and secondary lithium batteries.

    Awards and Recognitions

    Abraham received the Battery Research Award from the Electrochemical Society in 1995 for outstanding research on primary and secondary lithium batteries. He won the Group Achievement Award for the Rechargeable Battery Team from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1995 as well as NASA Certificates of Merit for Invention in 1983 and 1997. He is a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society, Fellow of American Institute of Chemists and Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

    Other awards include the Kerala Center (New York) Award for Outstanding Achievement in Applied Science in 2011; Certificate of Appreciation from The Pioneer High School, Everett, Massachusetts for mentoring students who won silver medal and best presentation award from Genius Olympiads in SUNY Oswego, NY (2011); and, Certificate of Appreciation from American Chemical Society Publications in 2013.

    He served as Chair of the Battery Division and member of Board of Directors of the Electrochemical Society, Pennington, NJ from 2006-2008. He was previously vice chair, secretary and treasurer of the battery division of the Electrochemical Society and served as Chair of the Battery Research Award Committee in 2009.

    Books

  • M. Winter, K. M. Abraham, D. H. Doughty, Z. Ogumi, N. J. Dudney (2010). Rechargeable Lithium-ion Batteries. Electrochemical Society. ISBN 978-1-60768-160-1
  • B. Scrosati, K. M. Abraham, W. A. van Schalkwijk, J. Hassoun (2013). Lithium Batteries: Advanced Technologies and Applications. John Wiley & Sons Inc. ISBN 978-1-118-18365-6
  • M. Doyle, E. Takeuchi, K. M. Abraham (2001). Rechargeable Lithium Batteries: Proceedings of the International Symposium. Electrochemical Society. ISBN 1-56677-288-5

    • Journal articles

    Abraham has authored or co-authored more than 150 publications. His most cited publication is K. M. Abraham and Z. Jiang, "A Polymer Electrolyte‐Based Rechargeable Lithium/Oxygen Battery" published in Journal of the Electrochemical Society volume 143, issue 1, 1-5 (1996) doi: 10.1149/1.1836378. It has been cited 1272 times, according to Google Scholar

    References

    K. M. Abraham (scientist) Wikipedia
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