Shutdown at BESSY II: new supply technology ensures long-term operation
During the shutdown, the low voltage main distribution panel will be completely renewed (here in the picture: before the conversion). © HZB/A. Knoch
The conversion work is in full swing: the old components are being dismantled and replaced. © HZB/A. Knoch
The X-ray source BESSY II is in a three-month period of shutdown. During this period, the low voltage main distribution panel in the supply building outside the electron storage ring is being renovated. This will secure the long-term operation of BESSY II over the next decade.
“The feeder cubicles for the power supply of the BESSY II machine are key to its reliable operation,” relates the responsible project manager Andreas Knoch from Technical Services (FM-T). The equipment section of the low voltage main distribution board comprises 36 control panels. They provide electricity to important components for operating the accelerator facility. These include, among other things, power supply units, magnets, high frequency systems, vacuum systems, climate control, osmosis water systems and IT systems.
“We need to replace the respective switchgear one-to-one, since there are no substitutes for the important components due to their age. The control cabinets will be equipped with components similar to the existing ones, except with adapted elements and additionally universal meters, active arc protection and new data bus technology in all outputs,” Knoch adds. Furthermore, new chillers will be installed during the shutdown. These will ensure the climate control in the electron storage ring runs reliably.
The interrelated work during the shutdown is being coordinated by Ingo Müller together with Christian Jung. The three months of “darkness” will therefore be used for other tasks as well: among others, for example, construction is continuing for the new experimental stations of the “BElChem” lab. In this joint project, the Max Planck Society and HZB are setting up new experimental capabilities at BESSY II for analysing material systems for electrochemical and catalytic applications. This work will continue even after the summer shutdown has ended.
Even if the shutdown were to continue into August, the interruption is the best alternative in which the least amount of measurement time is lost. “After all, all of our measures are aimed at one thing: that BESSY II will be available to our users stably and without unplanned interruptions,” says Christian Jung.
BESSY II will be started up again from 8 August 2022. Three weeks after that, on 30 August, HZB will once again be welcoming its users to the BESSY II beamlines.
- Electrocatalysis with dual functionality – an overviewHybrid electrocatalysts can produce green hydrogen, for example, and valuable organic compounds simultaneously. This promises economically viable applications. However, the complex catalytic reactions involved in producing organic compounds are not yet fully understood. Modern X-ray methods at synchrotron sources such as BESSY II, enable catalyst materials and the reactions occurring on their surfaces to be analysed in real time, in situ and under real operating conditions. This provides insights that can be used for targeted optimisation. A team has now published an overview of the current state of knowledge in Nature Reviews Chemistry.
- BESSY II: Phosphorus chains – a 1D material with 1D electronic propertiesFor the first time, a team at BESSY II has succeeded in demonstrating the one-dimensional electronic properties in phosphorus. The samples consisted of short chains of phosphorus atoms that self-organise at specific angles on a silver substrate. Through sophisticated analysis, the team was able to disentangle the contributions of these differently aligned chains. This revealed that the electronic properties of each chain are indeed one-dimensional. Calculations predict an exciting phase transition to be expected as soon as these chains are more closely packed. While material consisting of individual chains with longer distances is semiconducting, a very dense chain structure would be metallic.
- What vibrating molecules might reveal about cell biologyInfrared vibrational spectroscopy at BESSY II can be used to create high-resolution maps of molecules inside live cells and cell organelles in native aqueous environment, according to a new study by a team from HZB and Humboldt University in Berlin. Nano-IR spectroscopy with s-SNOM at the IRIS beamline is now suitable for examining tiny biological samples in liquid medium in the nanometre range and generating infrared images of molecular vibrations with nanometre resolution. It is even possible to obtain 3D information. To test the method, the team grew fibroblasts on a highly transparent SiC membrane and examined them in vivo. This method will provide new insights into cell biology.