HZB doctoral student won Young Scientist Award
Silvio Künstner (2nd from right) was awarded with five other young researchers at the EUROISMAR 2019 conference. © EUROISMAR 2019
The "Journal of Magnetic Resonance" and the ISMAR (International Society of Magnetic Resonance) awarded Silvio Künstner with a Young Scientist Award for his talk "Rapid Scan EPR-on-a-chip". The doctoral student from the HZB institute for Nanospectroscopy presented current progress in the development of a miniaturized electron spin resonance spectrometer.
Electron spin resonance or electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) provides detailed information about the inner structure of materials, down to an atomic level. This understanding of the material is essential for research in the field of renewable energies, such as efficient solar cells or battery electrodes. Of particular importance are experiments under real process conditions (operando measurements).
The chip-sized miniaturized EPR spectrometer presented by Silvio Künstner is so small that it can be inserted directly inside the sample. This improvement simplifies the handling of operando measurements significantly. In addition, EPR-on-a-chip is far more sensitive than conventional instruments. Next to the Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin, the University of Stuttgart, the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion, as well as the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Bruker (as part of the BMBF's "EPRoC" project) are involved in the research of the miniature spectrometer.
Silvio Künstner received the Young Scientist Award at the ISMAR EUROMAR Joint Conference (25 - 30 August 2019) in Berlin, which was attended by more than 1000 scientists. At the world's largest conference in this field, the HZB was involved as co-organizer. Furthermore, researchers of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin participated with more than ten presentations.
- The twisted nanotubes that tell a storyIn collaboration with scientists in Germany, EPFL researchers have demonstrated that the spiral geometry of tiny, twisted magnetic tubes can be leveraged to transmit data based on quasiparticles called magnons, rather than electrons.
- Bright prospects for tin perovskite solar cellsPerovskite solar cells are widely regarded as the next generation photovoltaic technology. However, they are not yet stable enough in the long term for widespread commercial use. One reason for this is migrating ions, which cause degradation of the semiconducting material over time. A team from HZB and the University of Potsdam has now investigated the ion density in four different, widely used perovskite compounds and discovered significant differences. Tin perovskite semiconductors produced with an alternative solvent had a particular low ion density — only one tenth that of lead perovskite semiconductors. This suggests that tin-based perovskites could be used to make solar cells that are not only really environmentally friendly but also very stable.
- Joint Kyiv Energy and Climate Lab goes liveHelmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy established on 27 November a Joint Energy and Climate Lab.