Materials Chain Seminar Series “Materials and Energy: Challenges and Opportunities”
The Materials Chain Seminar Series “Materials and Energy: Challenges and Opportunities” brings together highly visible researchers across the various fields of materials science who investigate the intricate relationship between energy and materials. “Energy” and “Materials” have an overarching importance for the future development of our society. They are coupled in multiple ways ranging from fundamental science to real-world applications. Analyzing their intricate relationship as energy-materials nexus, however, is a new approach. Because solutions are urgently needed, this field requires intense interaction and collaboration across scientific disciplines and along the entire chain from fundamental science to industrial application.
The seminar series takes place during winter term , typically on Thursdays and/or Fridays, from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
The lectures are held in different ZOOM rooms, which will be proclaimed here as well as in the invitations sent to all members of the Materials Chain, who have been signed up for the Newsletter.
Everybody is welcome. Registration is not required. If you receive an invitation as Materials Chain member, please feel free to forward it to other interested researchers at your institution and beyond. Early career researchers, like PhD students, are welcome as well!
Series schedule 2023:
| Date | Presenter | Title |
| Monday, September 4th, 2023 9:00 a.m. |
Prof. Anna Isaeva, Institute of Physics, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands | Van der Waals quantum materials: modular design, synthetic strategies and structure-property relationship |
| Thursday, February 16th, 2023 5:00 p.m. |
Quinten Akkerman, Faculty of Physics, Chair of Photonics and Optoelectronics, LMU Munich, Germany | Lead Halide Perovskite Quantum Dots; From synthesis to optical properties and applications |
| Thursday, February 9th, 2023 5:00 p..m. |
Matthias Grotevent, Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA | Colloidal quantum dot-based infrared photodetectors and their utilization in miniaturized optical spectrometer |
| Thursday, January 26th, 2023 5:00 p.m. |
Prof. Julian Allwood, Engineering and the Environment, University of Cambridge, UK | Steel and Aluminium in a zero emissions world |
| Friday, January 20th, 2023 5:00 p.m. |
Prof. Fatih Ömer Ilday, UNAM – National Nanotechnology Research Center, Bilkent University, Turkey | Explicit symmetry breaking unlocks laser-nanopattering and simpler genesis of homochirality |
| Friday, January 13th, 2023 5:00 p.m. |
Prof. Serim Ilday, Institute of Materials Science and Technology, UNAM – Bilkent University, Turkey | Universal dissipative self-assembly: From quantum dots to colloids, microorganisms, and human cells |
| Thursday, January 12th, 2023 5:00 p.m. |
Prof. Dennis Meier, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTNU – Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway | Ferroic domain walls for next-generation nanotechnology |
Series schedule 2022:
| Date | Presenter | Title |
| Thursday, December 15th, 2022 5:00 p.m. |
Prof. Andrew Gibson, Biomedical Plasma Technology, RUB, Bochum | Plasma Chemistry: what’s in the tool-box for energy and material science |
| Thursday, October 20th, 2022 5:00 p.m. |
Prof. Jasna Jankovic, Materials Science and Engineering Department, University of Connecticut, USA | Solving Challenges for Clean Energy Adoption – From a Nano-scale World to Macro-scale Applications |
| Friday, October 7th, 2022 5:00 p.m. |
Prof. Earl Goetheer, Principal Scientist at TNO / Professor at Technical University of Delft, Netherlands | Process intensifying electrochemical conversions |
| Thursday, March 24th, 2022 4:30 p.m. |
Prof. Erik C. Neyts, Department of Chemistry, University of Antwerp, Belgium | Past, present and future of atomic scale simulations for plasma catalysis |
| Thursday, February 10th, 2022 4:30 p.m. |
Prof. Aimy Bazylak, Thermofluidics for Clean Energy, University of Toronto, Canada | Operando imaging and numerical modelling to examine multiphase transport in electrochemical energy conversion |
| Friday, January 7th, 2022 4:30 p.m. |
Prof. Iryna Zenyuk, Samueli School of Engineering, University of California, USA | Materials selection for durability in polymer electrolyte fuel cells |
Series schedule 2021:
| Date | Presenter | Title |
| Friday, December 17th, 2021 4:30 p.m. |
Prof. Ulrike Krewer, KIT, Institut für Angewandte Materialien – Elektrochemische Technologien, Germany | Insights into Electrodes via Reaction Kinetic Modeling |
| Thursday, December 16th, 2021 4:30 p.m. |
Prof. Kornelius Nielsch, IFW Dresden- Institute for Metallic Materials, Germany | From Interface Modifications of Thermoelectric Materials towards Tellurium-free Thermoelectric Devices |
| Friday, December 10th, 2021 4:30 p.m. |
Prof. Pat Unwin, University of Warwick, Department of Chemistry, UK | Quantitative Visualisation of Surface Structure-Reactivity: Next Generation Design of Materials and Processes |
| Friday, December 3rd, 2021 4:30 p.m. |
Prof. Gabi Schierning, Universität Bielefeld, Dünne Schichten und Physik der Nanostrukturen, Germany | Anomalies in the electrical resistivity – how they can be tailored by materials design, and how materials design might be guided by analyzing them |
| Friday, November 19th, 2021 4:30 p.m. |
Prof. Stefan Kaskel, TU Dresden, Anorganic Chemistry, Germany | Advanced Carbon Materials for Energy Storage Applications |
| Thursday, November 18th, 2021 4:30 p.m. |
Prof. Tobias Kraus, INM Saarbrücken, Strukturbildung, Germany | Structure formation in multi-scale materials: from liquid precursors to electronics, batteries, and sensors |
| Friday, November 5th, 2021 4:30 p.m. |
Prof. Alejandro A. Franco, Laboratoire de Réactivité et Chimie des Solides, Université de Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens, France | Digitalization of the battery manufacturing process |
| Thursday, October 28th, 2021 4:30 p..m. |
Prof. Veronica Augustyn, North Carolina State University, Materials Science and Engineering, USA | Understanding electrochemical energy storage in transition metal oxides containing structural water |
| Friday, October 22nd, 2021 4:30 p.m. |
Prof. Jan Schroers, Yale University, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, USA | Combinatorial Materials Science, Data Science, and Machine Learning applied to Complex Materials Discovery and Science |
About the Materials Chain Seminar Series
On the fundamental physics side, the control of processes under non-equilibrium conditions and the operando analysis of processes in materials and at interfaces will have practical implications for bringing the understanding and discovery of materials and the development of process design concepts to the next level. In the field of materials science, novel functional materials for energy conversion and storage, their synthesis and processing towards usable devices (batteries, water splitting, fuel cells, catalysis, and more) aims at efficient pathways for energy conversion and storage.
This field benefits from a combination of fundamental understanding as well as combinatorial materials discovery and informatics to find new materials that combine application-related efficacy with availability on the level of raw materials. These materials must also demonstrate their capabilities in a device context.
Sustainability aspects require considering the entire chain of synthesis, processing, and application and thus finding optimum solutions through techno-economical multi-criteria analysis. In this context, novel energy- and resource-efficient materials processes are highly relevant for industry such as steel manufacturing, smelting, chemical industries,
as well as for the targeted production of high-performance materials by reduction of the number of processing steps, e.g., through additive manufacturing, and recycling.
Novel high-performance materials, finally, play an enabling role for the engineering of energy-efficient technologies, such as through lightweight high-strength materials for mobility and civil engineering, high-temperature materials for turbine blades, and corrosion-resistant materials for operation under extreme conditions.