Helmholtz Virtual Institute MiCo: Article selected as journal highlight for 2017
First author is the mathematician Sibylle Bergmann, whose PhD work is funded by MiCo. © WIAS
The Helmholtz Virtual Institute MiCo offers a platform through which the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin conducts joint research with universities and other partners on the topic of microstructures for thin-film solar cells. The journal Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering recently selected an article produced through MiCo as the highlight of those published by the journal during 2017.
The paper deals with the modelling of liquid/solid interface kinetics in silicon, the most common material used for solar cells. First author is mathematician Sibylle Bergmann, a researcher at the Weierstrass Institute who is funded by the Helmholtz Virtual Institute MiCo (Microstructure Control for thin-film solar cells).
The scientific article was evaluated by the reviewers as outstanding and was retrieved over 900 times, a particularly high number for a technical article from this subject area. The publication is available through Open Access.
Published in Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering: „Anisotropic Solid–Liquid Interface Kinetics in Silicon: An Atomistically Informed Phase-Field Model“; S. Bergmann, K. Albe, E. Flegel, D. A. Barragan-Yani & B. Wagner
DOI: 10.1088/1361-651X/aa7862
More information on Helmholtz Virtuelle Institut "Microstructure Control for thin-film solar cells"
- Battery research: visualisation of aging processes operandoLithium button cells with electrodes made of nickel-manganese-cobalt oxides (NMC) are very powerful. Unfortunately, their capacity decreases over time. Now, for the first time, a team has used a non-destructive method to observe how the elemental composition of the individual layers in a button cell changes during charging cycles. The study, now published in the journal Small, involved teams from the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), the University of Münster, researchers from the SyncLab research group at HZB and the BLiX laboratory at the Technical University of Berlin. Measurements were carried out in the BLiX laboratory and at the BESSY II synchrotron radiation source.
- New instrument at BESSY II: The OÆSE endstation in EMILA new instrument is now available at BESSY II for investigating catalyst materials, battery electrodes and other energy devices under operating conditions: the Operando Absorption and Emission Spectroscopy on EMIL (OÆSE) endstation in the Energy Materials In-situ Laboratory Berlin (EMIL). A team led by Raul Garcia-Diez and Marcus Bär showcases the instrument’s capabilities via a proof-of-concept study on electrodeposited copper.
- Green hydrogen: A cage structured material transforms into a performant catalystClathrates are characterised by a complex cage structure that provides space for guest ions too. Now, for the first time, a team has investigated the suitability of clathrates as catalysts for electrolytic hydrogen production with impressive results: the clathrate sample was even more efficient and robust than currently used nickel-based catalysts. They also found a reason for this enhanced performance. Measurements at BESSY II showed that the clathrates undergo structural changes during the catalytic reaction: the three-dimensional cage structure decays into ultra-thin nanosheets that allow maximum contact with active catalytic centres. The study has been published in the journal ‘Angewandte Chemie’.