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In: Energymaterials, International, Lightsources, Summerstudents

Thermoplastic ionomer materials such as Nafion do have many talents: they can be used as membranes for proton exchange in fuel cells, but they have also attracted attention as shape memory materials: Via external stimuli such as heat or an electric field, it is possible to trigger a change in shapes. Applications in textiles, biomedicine, aerospace, sensors and coatings are possible. Nafion: a membrane with shape memory Nafion is one of those materials: as a membrane in a fuel cell, its high proton conductivity allows a fast pass of hydrogen ions (protons). And its internal shape plays a crucial role. Now a team from Brazil hasRead More →

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In: Energymaterials, Summerstudents

Far-sighted hydrogen economy During one of the winter nights, while talking in the interior of Granite House, “well lighted with candles, well warmed with coal, after a good dinner”, the settlers of Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island were discussing about the fact that the coal will be entirely consumed. After a roughly estimation, Cyrus Harding, an engineer of great capabilities, concluded that it would happen “for at least two hundred and fifty or three hundred years.” To everyone’s surprise, when he was asked what they will burn instead of coal, he said: “Water”. “Water” cried Pencroft, “water as a fuel for steamers and engines! water toRead More →

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In: Energymaterials, Students, Summerstudents

My summer research project is Optimizing Buried Junction Cubic and Orthorhombic SnS Photocathodes.  For many years my research group have been searching for semiconductors and solar absorber materials that are non-toxic, abundant, stable, which crystallize at low temperature and are fabricated at low cost, but also have favorable optical and electrical properties for solar energy conversion. Figure 1: π-SnS photocathodes a) before and b) after coating with a passivation and protection layer. When designing a system for solar water splitting it has been proposed that an idealized tandem device, consisting of two semiconductors with band gaps around 1.0 to 1.3 eV and 1.6 to 2.0Read More →

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In: International, Students, Summerstudents

The Summer Student programme is on the way. After the first two weeks, I have had the opportunity to discover, not only my project, but also, the opportunity to meet colleagues from all over the world, and to discover a country and an unknown city to me until now. The title of the project is “Synthesis and tomographic analysis of metallic cellular materials”. The aim of this project is to produce cellular materials of titanium and magnesium with different percentages of porosity and different size of pores, which have potential applications in the replacement of hard tissue. To succeed in this project, I am learningRead More →

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In: Careers, Energymaterials

An unusual science conference (not only) for young female scientists: April 29-30, 2018 Near the city of Goslar in the beautiful Harz mountains, an unusual science meeting is organised. The location is the Mönchehaus Museum (www.moenchehaus.de). I was attending this conference some years ago and I can really recommend it. The speakers are exclusively very renowned women in materials science, heading institutes at MIT, MPG or other prestigious research institutions. And multiple occasions are given to get into exchange with them. Discussions were open and vivid, and I guess many young women got motivated to strive for a scientific career. The organiser, Prof Katarina Al-Shamery, CarlRead More →

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In: Energymaterials

An international team of scientists  has greatly improved the stability of organic-inorganic lead halide perovskites. These materials have enormous potential for photovoltaic applications, but still suffer from relatively short device lifetimes. Guanidinium replaces some traditional cations The scientists, led by researchers from the EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, incorporated a large organic cation – guanidinium – into the perovskite crystal structure, partly replacing the methylammonium and formamidinium cations used traditionally. Conversion efficiency 19 % Overall, the new material delivered average power conversion efficiencies of over 19%, and increased  operation to 1,000 h under continuous illumination. This is an important step for research in the perovskite field. ScientistsRead More →

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In: Energymaterials, Lightsources

Source: SESAME Thursday, November 23, 2017:  At 10:50 yesterday morning scientists at the pioneering SESAME light source saw First Monochromatic Light through the XAFS/XRF spectroscopy beamline. This signals the start of the laboratory’s experimental programme. The beamline delivers X-ray light that will be used to carry out research in areas ranging from solid state physics to environmental science and archaeology. “After years of preparation, it’s great to see light on target,” said beamline scientist Messaoud Harfouche. “We have a fantastic experimental programme ahead of us, starting with an experiment to investigate heavy metals contaminating soils in the region.” Two beamlines for a start, a third one inRead More →

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In: Summerstudents

For a long time, cybernetics was only seen in sci-fi (cyborgs like RoboCop and human enhancements like Inspector Gadget). A current limitation of electric prosthetics, is the human interface. Where the body rejects foreign objects. My project has been investigating a novel self-assembling material nanomaterial, acetylated β3-peptides. These have been demonstrated to assemble into fibers, and when coordinated to metals have been found to metallic like conductivity. As these mimic biological architecture, this material may be biocompatible, and as it forms 2D surface coverage, it’s possible to use it as to transport energy along molecular wires. β3-peptides represent an opportunity for the investigation of aRead More →