The BioRef neutron instrument to be set up again at ANSTO in Australia
BioRef was transported from HZB on December 19, 2016 and shipped to Australia. The trip will take about two months. © D. Höcker/HZB
The BioRef neutron instrument commenced its roughly two-month journey from HZB to Australia on December 19, 2016. It will be set up again at the OPAL neutron source there, part of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) in Sydney. It is expected to be available to the international scientific community beginning in 2018 under the name "Spatz".
ANSTO operates the OPAL neutron source as part of the Centre for Neutron Scattering in the Lucas Heights quarter of Sydney. OPAL is one of the newest and most successful neutron sources in the world and ANSTO is planning further expansion of the neutron source and neutron research.
There has been close cooperation with the HZB for several years, in particular in research on energy materials. The two institutions entered into a new agreement in October 2016 to intensify this cooperation. Among other aspects, they will strive for an active exchange of ANSTO and HZB scientists, and they intend to cooperate more closely in the area of support for junior scientists as well. ANSTO is taking over the BioRef reflectometer, which facilitates research on soft matter, solid/liquid interfaces, and thin films, from the BER II neutron source in Berlin that will close at the end of 2019.
BioRef was packed up in December and shipped to Australia. It will be set up anew at ANSTO and commissioned in 2017. It will then become available for research again beginning in 2018 under the name “Spatz”, a reference to its German origins. Instrument time will be explicitly reserved there for the German user group.
In order to ensure the transfer of knowledge to the neutron community and the continued use of neutron instruments, HZB is also working on cooperative agreements with other research institutions in Europe and the world.
- Battery research with the HZB X-ray microscopeNew cathode materials are being developed to further increase the capacity of lithium batteries. Multilayer lithium-rich transition metal oxides (LRTMOs) offer particularly high energy density. However, their capacity decreases with each charging cycle due to structural and chemical changes. Using X-ray methods at BESSY II, teams from several Chinese research institutions have now investigated these changes for the first time with highest precision: at the unique X-ray microscope, they were able to observe morphological and structural developments on the nanometre scale and also clarify chemical changes.
- Hydrogen: Breakthrough in alkaline membrane electrolysersA team from the Technical University of Berlin, HZB, IMTEK (University of Freiburg) and Siemens Energy has developed a highly efficient alkaline membrane electrolyser that approaches the performance of established PEM electrolysers. What makes this achievement remarkable is the use of inexpensive nickel compounds for the anode catalyst, replacing costly and rare iridium. At BESSY II, the team was able to elucidate the catalytic processes in detail using operando measurements, and a theory team (USA, Singapore) provided a consistent molecular description. In Freiburg, prototype cells were built using a new coating process and tested in operation. The results have been published in the prestigious journal Nature Catalysis.
- Perovskite solar cells: TEAM PV develops reproducibility and comparabilityTen teams at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin are building a long-term international alliance to converge practices and develop reproducibility and comparability in perovskite materials. The TEAM PV project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Germany.