From under the stars to on top of the world, the annual Art of Research photo contest brings to life the unseen moments of the research process. Now in its 7th year, the contest has captured the behind the scenes of the everyday research experience at Queen’s and the roles that faculty, staff, students, and alumni play in advancing groundbreaking work.
The 2023 contest continued to place a spotlight on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the importance of our social impact mission guided by the Queen’s Strategy. A new prize category this year asked the Queen’s community to capture their research in motion. In videos of 30 seconds or less, researchers captured the beauty of their research in action from microscopic views to wide aerial expanses.
See moe details in the Queen’s Gazette here.
Category: Innovation for Global Impact
Crystallization Pattern of a Common Salt Mixture
Researcher: Rachel Korchinsky – Graduate Student, Chemistry
Location: Electron Microscopy Facility, Queen’s University
Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are rechargeable energy carriers that power electronic devices such as phones, cars, and hybrid/electric vehicles. The demand for lithium used to manufacture LIBs is expected to grow 30-fold by 2040. Industry primarily extracts lithium from rock ore and brine; however, the methods used are time-intensive and costly. Therefore, we are investigating alternative extraction methods that would reduce the energy consumption, waste production, and time intensity. The image, obtained by microscopy, is of salts that crystallized after evaporation of a lithium-containing brine.