SXR2023: Deadline for submissions April 15
© Jörg Zägel, CC BY-SA 3.0
The SXR2023 (Principles of Functionality from Soft-X-Ray Spectroscopy) brings together young and experienced scientists to discuss recent scientific highlights, trends, and current advances with soft X-ray spectroscopy. Our goal is to further understanding on the atomic level. The impetus is to influence and ideally shape functionality in materials and molecular systems. In this effort, scientists cross intentionally the boundaries between physics, chemistry and materials and focus on the unifying aspects of functionality. Insights to the governing principles are often based on the combination of experiment with first principles theory and models. Thus a profound description of X-ray matter interaction — creating the spectroscopic observables — is always underlying.
Registration/Abstract Submission:
The Scientific Organizing Committee invites your registration combined with abstract submissions for exclusively hot-topic oral presentations and poster contributions until April 15th, 2023, at the latest.
An e-mail notification for accepted abstracts will be sent out around the end of April 2023. Places are limited.
Please see the conference website http://www.hz-b.de/sxr2023 for more detailed information.
Please note that we cannot offer financial support regarding travels and accommodation. Instead there will be no conference fee.
- 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.
- BESSY II: New procedure for better thermoplasticsBio-based thermoplastics are produced from renewable organic materials and can be recycled after use. Their resilience can be improved by blending bio-based thermoplastics with other thermoplastics. However, the interface between the materials in these blends sometimes requires enhancement to achieve optimal properties. A team from the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands has now investigated at BESSY II how a new process enables thermoplastic blends with a high interfacial strength to be made from two base materials: Images taken at the new nano station of the IRIS beamline showed that nanocrystalline layers form during the process, which increase material performance.
- 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.