Professor John Drennan

BSc (Hons) Flinders, PhD Flinders

Research: Materials development and characterisation

Professor John Drennan is an internationally-recognised expert in advanced materials characterisation and has worked with the US Department of Energy; National Institute of Materials Science (NIMS), Japan; and IBM. Professor Drennan has held four Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery grants. He has worked at Imperial College, London and been an external reviewer for the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO).

International links

Professor Drennan has been a post-doctoral researcher at Imperial College, London; worked for the CSIRO; and was seconded to Ceramic Fuel Cells, Melbourne. He has collaborated with Professor Richard Catlow from University College London; Professor Peter Battle from the University of Oxford; and the National Institute of Materials Science (NIMS) in Japan. NIMS appointed Professor Drennan an International Fellow – the only Australian to be granted the honour. He has been selected to review the US Department of Energy’s program Structural Ceramics and Mechanical Behaviour of Ceramics: Emphasis on Microstructure and Microchemistry.

Memberships, patents and funding

Professor Drennan has been a member of the International Advisory Committee of the NanoCluster at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; an external reviewer of the materials division of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO); and a reviewer for international journals such as the Journal of Materials Science, Solid State Ionics, the Journal of European Ceramics Society and the Journal of Japanese Ceramic Society. Professor Drennan has been a visiting scientist at IBM’s TJ Watson Research Centre in New York, US. He has been an associate editor of the Journal of the American Ceramic Society. Professor Drennan has been a key driver in obtaining more than $12 million in infrastructure funding from competitive sources, including the ARC and National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy.

Awards and plenaries

Professor Drennan is the recipient of the 2010 John Sanders Medal from the Australian Microscopy and Microanalysis Society; two travelling fellowships from the Science and Techology (STA) Agency, Japan; and a Commonwealth Post Graduate Scholarship. He was the invited plenary lecturer at the International Symposium on EcTopia Science at Nagoya University, Japan, in December 2011.

Key publications

Chauhan, Shipra, Richards, Gary J., Mori, Toshiyuki, Yan, Pengfei, Hill, Jonathan P., Ariga, Katsuhiko, Zou, Jin and Drennan, John (2013) Fabrication of a nano-structured Pt-loaded cerium oxide nanowire and its anode performance in the methanol electro-oxidation reaction. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 1 20: 6262-6270. PDF

Fugane, Keisuke, Mori, Toshiyuki, Ou, Ding Rong, Yan, Pengfei, Ye, Fei, Yoshikawa, Hideki and Drennan, John (2012) Improvement of cathode performance on Pt-CeOx by optimization of electrochemical pretreatment condition for PEFC application. Langmuir, 28 48: 16692-16700. PDF

Han, Guang, Chen, Zhi-Gang, Zou, Yichao, Drennan, John and Zou, Jin (2014) Long wavelength emissions of Se4+-doped In2O 3 hierarchical nanostructures. Journal of Materials Chemistry C, 2 32: 6529-6535. PDF

Han, Guang, Chen, Zhi-Gang, Drennan, John and Zou, Jin (2014) Indium selenides: structural characteristics, synthesis and their thermoelectric performances. Small, 10 14: 2747-2765. PDF

Han, Guang, Chen, Zhi-Gang, Ye, Delai, Yang, Lei, Wang, Lianzhou, Drennan, John and Zou, Jin (2014) In-doped Bi2Se3 hierarchical nanostructures as anode materials for Li-ion batteries. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 2 19: 7109-7116. PDF

Han, Guang, Chen, Zhi-Gang, Yang, Lei, Cheng, Lina, Drennan, John and Zou, Jin (2013) Phase control and formation mechanism of new-phase layer-structured rhombohedral In3Se4 hierarchical nanostructures. Crystal Growth and Design, 13 11: 5092-5099. PDF

Lashtabeg, Anna, Smart, Michael, Riley, Daniel, Gillen, Andrew and Drennan, John (2013) The effect of extreme temperature in an oxidising atmosphere on dense tantalum carbide (TaC). Journal of Materials Science, 48 1: 258-264.  PDF

Li, Zhi-Peng, Mori, Toshiyuki, Auchterlonie, Graeme John, Zou, Jin and Drennan, John (2012) Incubational domain characterization in lightly doped ceria. Journal of Solid State Chemistry, 192 28-33. PDF

Li, Zhi-Peng, Mori, Toshiyuki, Ye, Fei, Ou, Dingrong, Auchterlonie, Graeme John, Zou, Jin and Drennan, John (2012) Cerium-reduction-induced defects clustering, ordering, and associated microstructure evolution in yttrium-doped ceria. Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 116 9: 5435-5443.  PDF

Li, Zhi-Peng, Mori, Toshiyuki, Auchterlonie, Graeme John, Zou, Jin and Drennan, John (2012) Nanodomain formation and distribution in Gd-doped ceria. Materials Research Bulletin, 47 3: 763-767.  PDF

Li, Zhi-Peng, Mori, Toshiyuki, Zou, Jin and Drennan, John (2012) Optimization of ionic conductivity in solid electrolytes through dopant-dependent defect cluster analysis. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 14 23: 8369-8375.  PDF

Li, Zhi-Peng, Mori, Toshiyuki, Zou, Jin and Drennan, John (2013) Defects clustering and ordering in di- and trivalently doped ceria. Materials Research Bulletin, 48 2: 807-812.  PDF

Mori, Toshiyuki, Ou, Ding Rong, Zou, Jin and Drennan, John (2012) Present status and future prospect of design of Pt-cerium oxide electrodes for fuel cell applications. Progress in Natural Science: Materials International, 22 6: 561-571.  PDF

Wang, Ya, Liao, Zhiming, Xu, Hongyi, Xiu, Faxian, Kou, Xufeng, Wang, Yong, Wang, Kang L., Drennan, John and Zou, Jin (2011) Structural evolution of GeMn/Ge superlattices grown by molecular beam epitaxy under different growth conditions. Nanoscale Research Letters, 6 624.1-624.6.  PDF

Yan, Pengfei, Mineshige, Atsushi, Mori, Toshiyuki, Wu, Yuanyuan, Auchterlonie, Graeme John, Zou, Jin and Drennan, John (2013) Microanalysis of a Grain Boundary's Blocking Effect in Lanthanum Silicate Electrolyte for Intermediate-Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cells. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 5 11: 5307-5313.  PDF

Yan, Pengfei, Mori, Toshiyuki, Wu, Yuanyuan, Li, Zhimin, Auchterlonie, Graeme John, Zou, Jin and Drennan, John (2013) Microstructural and chemical characterization of ordered structure in yttrium doped ceria. Microscopy and Microanalysis, 19 1: 102-110.   PDF

Yan, P. F., Mori, T., Suzuki, A., Wu, Y. Y., Auchterlonie, G. J., Zou, J. and Drennan, J. (2012) Grain boundary's conductivity in heavily yttrium doped ceria. Solid State Ionics, 222-223 31-37.  PDF

Zhao, Ling, Drennan, John, Kong, Chun, Amarasinghe, Sudath and Jiang, San Ping (2014) Insight into surface segregation and chromium deposition on La 0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O 3-δ cathodes of solid oxide fuel cells. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 2 29: 11114-11123.  PDF