U of T ENGINEERING

Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry

Gisele Azimi

Gisele Azimi

Professor (ChemE/MSE)
B.A.Sc. and M.A.Sc. (Sharif University of Technology), Ph.D. (Toronto), P.Eng, Post-doc (MIT)

co-Director, Ontario Centre for the Characterization of Advanced Materials (OCCAM)
Canada Research Chair in Urban Mining Innovation
Principal Investigator, Laboratory for Strategic Materials
Joint appointment with the Dept. of Material Science and Engineering

Room WB113 | Tel: 416-946-7568 | Email: g.azimi@utoronto.ca

New Projects Available

  • Recycling of lithium ion batteries. We will look at different aspects of the recycling process of various cathode materials like NMC and LFP.
  • Supercritical fluid extraction for the recovery of valuable metals from primary and secondary resources.
  • Development of lithium ion and aluminum ion batteries. We will focus on development of cathode materials and electrolytes.
  • Extraction of rare earth elements from uncommon ore materials. We will develop the extraction process and elucidate the process mechanism.

Currently accepting graduate students? Yes

  • PhD

Honours & Awards

  • FASE Early Career Teaching Award (Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, University of Toronto), 2021
  • Impact Teacher of the Year Award (Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Toronto), 2021
  • Emerging Leaders of Chemical Engineering Award (CSChE - Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering), 2020
  • The CSChE Innovation Award, 2020
  • Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Urban Mining Innovations, 2020
  • McCharles Prize for Early Career Research Distinction (University of Toronto), 2020
  • The Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering Lectureship Award (CSChE), 2020
  • TMS EPD Young Leaders Professional Development Award, 2020
  • Burgess Teaching Award (Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, University of Toronto), 2019
  • Dean’s Spark Professorship (University of Toronto, 2018
  • Early Researcher Award (Ontario Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation, and Trade), 2017

Research Areas

  • “Urban mining” and advanced recycling of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment
  • “Supercritical fluid extraction”
  • “Carbon management” through the development of a “green electrochemical technology” for iron extraction and steel refining
  • Industrial solid waste reduction through “waste valorization” to produce “strategic materials like rare earth elements, lithium and cobalt”
  • Development of “innovative materials” with unique properties (hydrophobicity, anti-scaling) with far-reaching applications in structural and energy materials sectors
  • “Energy storage” focusing on the development of a “new generations (post lithium) of rechargeable batteries”.

Research Interests

My research lies at the intersection of “Process Engineering”, “Electrochemistry” and “Materials Science." We strive to enable sustainability in terms of energy and global warming as well as materials criticality. The research program covers three themes:

  1. Energy storage with a focus on the development of new generations of rechargeable batteries that are cost-effective, high-performance, safe, and made of earth abundant materials. The focus is on “aluminum batteries."
  2. Urban mining with a focus on recycling and recovering strategic materials from secondary resources such as Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) or industrial solid wastes.
  3. Advance materials with a focus on innovative materials for scale-resistance and solid–liquid separation.

Selected Patents & Publications

Judge, W.D.*, Paeng, J.*, Azimi, G., “Electrorefining for direct decarburization of molten iron,” Nature Materials, (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-021-01106-z) (2021)

Kim, J.*, Azimi, G., “The CO2 sequestration by supercritical carbonation of electric arc furnace slag,” Journal of CO2 Utilization, 52, 101667 (2021)

Dong, T.*, Ng, K.L.*, Wang, Y.*, Voznyy, O., Azimi, G., “Solid electrolyte interphase engineering for aqueous aluminum metal batteries: a critical evaluation,” Advanced Energy Materials, 11, 20, 2100077 (2021)

Chan, K.H.*, Anawati, J.*, Malik, M.*, Azimi, G., “Recovery of lithium, cobalt, nickel, and manganese from waste lithium-ion battery of electric vehicles,” ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering, 9, 12, 4398–4410 (2021)

Kunanusont, N.*, Zhang, J.*, Watada, K.*, Shimoyama, Y., Azimi, G., “Effect of organophosphorus ligands on supercritical extraction of neodymium from NdFeB magnet,” Journal of Supercritical Fluids, 170, 105128 (2021).

Zhang, R.*, Azimi, G., “Scale-phobic surfaces made of rare earth oxide ceramics,” ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 12, 42339–42347 (2020)

Malik, M.*, Ng, K.L.*, Azimi, G., “Physicochemical characterization of AlCl3-Urea ionic liquid analogs: Speciation, conductivity, and electrochemical stability,” Electrochimica Acta, 354, 136708 (2020) Impact Factor: 6.901.

Ng, K.L.*, Dong, T.Z.*, Anawati, J.*, Azimi, G., “High-performance aluminum ion battery using cost-effective AlCl3-trimethylamine hydrochloride ionic liquid electrolyte,” Adv. Sustainable Syst. 2000074 (1–12) (2020)

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