Posterprize for HZB postdoc Prince Saurabh Bassi
Bassi presented results on new phases in the quaternary Fe-Ti-W-O system for application as photoelectrocatalyst in light-assisted water splitting. © HZB
Dr. Prince Saurabh Bassi was awarded the poster prize at “International Bunsen-Discussion-Meeting on Fundamentals and Applications of (Photo) Electrolysis for Efficient Energy Storage”. He is a postdoctoral fellow working with Prof. Sebastian Fiechter in the Institute for Solar Fuels.
The poster was titled: “Survey and Synthesis of Photoactive Phases in the Quaternary System Fe-Ti-W-O Supported by Combinatorial Screening Experiments”. It was chosen from 53 posters presented during two poster sessions of the conference with 150 participants. The meeting was held in Taormina, Italy from 1st to 5th April 2019. The prize was sponsored by the Royal Society of Chemistry (Journal of Materials Chemistry A, B and C and Materials Horizons). A book voucher was also gifted to him by the society.
In the poster, Bassi presented latest results on the survey and synthesis of new phases in the quaternary Fe-Ti-W-O system for application as photoelectrocatalyst in light-assisted water splitting. The inability to find systems possessing favorable characteristics like optimum band gap for efficient solar light absorption and electrochemical, aqueous and thermodynamic stability, have led the scientific community to explore complex ternary and quaternary oxide systems. Since they encompass complimentary properties of their constituent binary oxides, their properties can be tuned by varying their stoichiometry.
He fabricated thin film photoelectrodes of the hit composition Fe48Ti30W22Ox, obtained from the combinatorial screening, using a simple spin coating route. The structural analysis revealed that - after temperature annealing – a new quaternary oxide appeared crystallizing in a distorted Ferberite structure together with the ternary phases Fe2TiO5 and Fe1.7Ti0.23O3. His work proves to be a bridge between combinatorial studies and thin film fabrication and characterization of photoactive hit region compositions.
- Catherine Dubourdieu receives ERC Advanced GrantProf. Dr. Catherine Dubourdieu heads the Institute “Functional Oxides for Energy-Efficient Information Technology” at HZB and is Professor at the Physical and Theoretical Chemistry division at Freie Universität Berlin. The physicist and materials scientist specialises in nanometre-sized functional oxides and their applications in information technologies. She has now been awarded a prestigious ERC Advanced Grant for her research project “LUCIOLE”, which aims at combining ferroelectric polar textures with conventional silicon technologies.
- Quantum physicist Jens Eisert receives ERC Advanced GrantProf. Dr. Jens Eisert conducts research at the Dahlem Center for Complex Quantum Systems at Freie Universität Berlin and heads the joint research group with HZB for quantum computing and simulation. With his award-winning research project "DebuQC", he wants to explore the metaphorical boundary of the classical and quantum worlds. It is already his third ERC grant that Jens Eisert has received. The professor of theoretical quantum physics and his team want to clarify essential research questions about quantum technology and also explore the limits of this promising technology.
- HZB receives funding to make innovations usable more quicklyThe Helmholtz Association has selected three new innovation platforms that will now be funded. HZB is involved in two of them: The Innovation Platform on Accelerator Technologies HI-ACTS is intended to open up modern accelerators for a wide range of applications, while the Innovation Platform Solar TAP is intended to bring new ideas from the laboratories of photovoltaics research more quickly into an application. In total, HZB will receive 4.2 million euros in grants from the Pact for Research and Innovation over the next three years.