Scott A. Barnett is a professor in the Materials Science and Engineering Department at Northwestern University. After receiving his PhD in metallurgy from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1982, he held postdoctoral appointments at the University of Illinois and Linkøping University (Sweden). He took his present position at Northwestern University in 1986.
He has worked on ion-assisted deposition of semiconductor and ceramic thin films and coatings and developed ultra-hard nitride nano-layered coatings. Barnett’s research utilizes physical vapor and colloidal deposition methods for producing ceramic materials with energy applications, including lithium-ion battery electrodes, solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), and reversible solid oxide cells (ReSOCs). He was among the first to propose and then demonstrate SOFCs with thin supported electrolytes. Barnett is currently developing pressurized intermediate-temperature ReSOCs for achieving electricity storage with high round-trip efficiency, and is using accelerated testing to characterize SOFC degradation processes. He has published more than 250 refereed papers and has an h-index of 72 (Google Scholar).
