Institute Nanospectroscopy
The Helmholtz Energy Materials Foundry (HEMF)
The Helmholtz Energy Materials Foundry (HEMF) is envisaged as a new large-scale collaborative research-and-development platform dedicated to the synthesis of new and improved materials for energy conversion and storage applications. It will consist of state-of-the-art laboratories and equipment to be added to existing facilities that are distributed over the six participating Helmholtz centres (DLR, FZJ, HZB, HZG, HZDR, KIT). HEMF will serve the wider scientific community by offering services and user access to external partners. The scientific focus of the foundry will be on materials and applications in the field of solar cells, solar fuels, fuel cells, batteries, thermoelectrics and thermochemistry, with catalysis as an overarching theme that is important to all these topics. The Institute for Nanospectroscopy is actively involved in the X-ray photoelectron emission microscopy and Electron paramagnetic resonance activities which are part of HEMF.
HEMF will be operated as an international user facility for both academic and industrial partners. Each participating Helmholtz centre will offer facilities that optimally enhance its existing scientific infrastructure, and provide the best match to its established expertise. Moreover, JointLabs with academic partners, lab@location developments with industry partners and cooperation with the Max Planck Society will further enhance the HEMF capacities. As the coordinating centre, HZB will maintain a central web-based access point that informs the users of the capabilities and possibilities offered by the HEMF platform. The HEMF platform will strengthen the Helmholtz Association’s competence in materials synthesis, and complement the existing HEMCP infrastructure which has a strong focus on materials characterization. The size of this combined effort and the opportunities for synergy between the centres and between internal and external users is truly unique, and combined with the strong focus on energy materials it will enable the Helmholtz partners to operate at the forefront of international efforts in fields.
Schematic outline of the proposed Helmholtz Energy Materials Foundry (HEMF)