HZB strengthens its technology transfer
Dr. Paul Harten heads the new "Technology Transfer and Innovation" department
The Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) wants to bring technologies to market faster together with industrial partners and use its expertise in materials and energy research to investigate questions from industry in joint projects. The newly established "Technology Transfer and Innovation" department will identify cooperation partners and applications that are of industrial interest.
"The HZB has a high level of systems competence that covers the entire innovation chain from basic research to application, making it an important partner for industry and society. We want to further expand this with the new staff department," says Prof. Dr. Bernd Rech, Scientific Director of HZB for the Energy Division.
"HZB conducts research on many topics that are also of interest to industry. In addition, there is an excellent research infrastructure here, with which materials can not only be characterized in a variety of ways, but also synthesized and modified. This gives us enormous potential for cooperation with industry," says Dr. Paul Harten, head of the "Technology Transfer and Innovation" department. "We want to actively approach industry and promote these offers. We also plan to intensify contacts with former employees and guest scientists. The establishment of an ALUMNI network is an opportunity to gain existing contacts for joint new projects.
Short biography:
Dr. Paul Harten studied physics and received his doctorate in optics from the University of Arizona. He has gained a wide range of professional experience in order to advance the usability of technologies. Among other things, Harten worked in the development department of a large German corporation, in the management of a medium-sized company and was involved in the founding of several start-ups. Most recently, he worked at the Helmholtz Innovation Lab HySPRINT on industrial partnerships for the establishment of large-area laser material processing methods in various industries.
- Freeze casting - a guide to creating hierarchically structured materialsFreeze casting is an elegant, cost-effective manufacturing technique to produce highly porous materials with custom-designed hierarchical architectures, well-defined pore orientation, and multifunctional surface structures. Freeze-cast materials are suitable for many applications, from biomedicine to environmental engineering and energy technologies. An article in "Nature Reviews Methods Primer" now provides a guide to freeze-casting methods that includes an overview on current and future applications and highlights characterization techniques with a focus on X-ray tomoscopy.
- A simpler way to inorganic perovskite solar cellsInorganic perovskite solar cells made of CsPbI3 are stable over the long term and achieve good efficiencies. A team led by Prof. Antonio Abate has now analysed surfaces and interfaces of CsPbI3 films, produced under different conditions, at BESSY II. The results show that annealing in ambient air does not have an adverse effect on the optoelectronic properties of the semiconductor film, but actually results in fewer defects. This could further simplify the mass production of inorganic perovskite solar cells.
- BESSY II: How pulsed charging enhances the service time of batteriesAn improved charging protocol might help lithium-ion batteries to last much longer. Charging with a high-frequency pulsed current reduces ageing effects, an international team demonstrated. The study was led by Philipp Adelhelm (HZB and Humboldt University) in collaboration with teams from the Technical University of Berlin and Aalborg University in Denmark. Experiments at the X-ray source BESSY II were particularly revealing.