Group description
The group established by Prof. Alario-Franco back in 1973 has been qualified as “excellent” in 2018 by the Spanish Research Agency. Along this period, the focus has been the synthesis, structure and microstructure of materials in the search of outstanding physical-chemical properties. The main research lines include: study of magnetic/magnetocaloric compounds, superconductors, multiferroics, electrodes and electrolytes of batteries, supercaps and SOFCs. The group benefits from visits of scientists and actively collaborates with other prestigious national/international researchers. Regarding experimental aspects such as the synthesis, the group has expertise in alternative methods, being pioneer in high pressure/high temperature methods, also called “extreme conditions” through the unique “High-Pressure UCM Lab”. The group has also pioneered in Spain the microstructural characterization of solids by means of Transmission Electron Microscopy and ancillary techniques along with late Atomic Resolution HRTEM and STEM having the instrumental facilities at the UCM. The group has expertise in transport measurements and frequent access to neutron diffraction and synchrotron facilities is granted. Currently, the group is composed by 21 researchers, including the permanent staff, postdocs and PhD students. The scientific output of the group in the last 5 years includes more than 120 research papers in indexed journals, 3 patents over 500 communications at conferences and 10 PhD Theses.