A highlight of the visit is the tour of the BESSY II experimental hall. Here, the Deputy Prime Minister (3rd from left) discovers the endstations of the X-ray source with the Scientific Director Bernd Rech (4th left).
© C. Collado / HZB
Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore visits HZB
At the beginning of the visit, Bernd Rech introduces the Helmholtz Association and HZB's research as well in Adlershof as in Wannsee.
© C. Collado / HZB
The Deputy Prime Minister follows Andreas Jankowiak's presentations with great interest. In the control room of BESSY II, the accelerator expert introduces the guests to how the light source works.
© C. Collado / HZB
The first stop in the experimental hall is the hutch of the macromolecular crystallography research group. Manfred Weiss reports, among other things, on the research that led to the decoding of the three-dimensional structure of the main protease of the SARS-CoV2 virus.
© C. Collado / HZB
This is the size of the pin on which a crystal is mounted where the brilliant X-ray light (synchrotron light) shines through. This allows researchers to peer into the matter and better understand its secrets.
© C. Collado / HZB
The second stop at BESSY II brought the delegation to EMIL (Energy Materials In-Situ Laboratory Berlin).
© C. Collado / HZB
With humour and Lego, Steffi Hlawenka brings thin-film technology closer to the guests and reports on the new research platform for catalysis: CatLab.
© C. Collado / HZB
In bright sunshine, the delegation learned about new technologies in the field of photovoltaics and solar cells.
© C. Collado / HZB
Postdoc Jiahuan Zhang proudly presents a solar cell developed in her group that currently holds a world record with an efficiency of almost 30 per cent.
© C. Collado / HZB
At the end, the participants exchange ideas about research and R&D in Germany and Singapore. They agree that they would like to build on these fruitful discussions and envisage future projects.
© C. Collado / HZB
A group picture with the delegation and all those involved from the HZB.
Thank you very much for your visit, Heng Swee Keat!
© C. Collado / HZB
On Friday, 17 June, a delegation from Singapore visited HZB. Heng Swee Keat, Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore, was accompanied by the Ambassador to Singapore in Germany, Laurence Bay, as well as representatives from research and industry.
It is the Prime Minister's first trip to Europe since the start of the pandemic. Before his stop in Berlin, he was in the UK, including London Tech Week and the Oxford Science Park.
The delegation led by Heng Swee Keat got some insights into HZB's energy and materials research as well as the science conducted at BESSY II light source and in the new catalyst laboratory CatLab.
All participants were delighted about the fruitful discussions and would like to deepen the scientific exchange between the two countries.
- Electrocatalysts: New model for charge separation at the solid-liquid interfaceHydrogen is at the heart of the transition to carbon neutrality, as both an energy carrier and a reagent for green chemistry. However, large-scale production of hydrogen via electrolysis, as well as the production of many other chemical products, requires significantly cheaper and more efficient catalysts. A precise understanding of the electrochemical processes that take place at the interface between the solid catalyst and the liquid medium is highly useful for developing better electrocatalysts. In the journal Nature Communications, an European team has now presented a powerful model that determines charge separation at the interface, the formation of the electric double layer and local electric potential variations, and the resulting influence on the catalytic activity.
- Environmental Chemistry at BESSY II: Radicals in waterwaysHow do radicals form in aqueous solutions when exposed to UV light? This question is important for health research and environmental protection, for example with regard to the overfertilisation of water bodies by intensive agriculture. A team at BESSY II has now developed a new method of investigating hydroxyl radicals in solution. By using a clever trick, the scientists gained surprising insights into the reaction pathway.
- Theory meets practice – We’re heading back to HTW Berlin!The HZB’s BIPV consultancy office (BAIP) is once again coordinating and delivering the lecture series “Building-Integrated Photovoltaics”.