Doris Segets researches materials for renewable energies

Advancing key technology

Tiny nanoparticles promise one thing above all: to make the energy transition possible. To speed up the development of the particles, Materials Chain member Prof. Dr Doris Segets wants to use artificial intelligence. In an interview, the scientist explains how she wants to make the nanomaterials, which work wonderfully in the laboratory environment, usable for industry - for example, for the ramp-up of hydrogen.

Professor Segets, you are a chemical engineer and therefore an expert in a discipline that is considered a key technology for the energy transition. What exactly are you researching?

I work with nanoparticles. That means I focus on the production and processing of materials. Processing means that we not only build the particles according to their necessary properties, but also develop them further. We turn particles into superparticles and ultimately into structured layers, such as electrodes. These are needed for hydrogen electrolysis, for example. So far, the catalysts in electrodes that get hydrogen production going are made of precious metals. These are expensive and difficult to obtain. That's why we're developing precious metal-free catalysts at the UDE. Incidentally, there is a similar resource problem with wind energy, because permanent magnets based on rare earths are installed in the rotors. For this, too, we need cheap and easily available new materials.

To the whole interview (english version): https://www.uni-due.de/2023-09-14-materials-doris-segets

https://www.uni-due.de/2023-09-11-materialien-fuer-die-energiewende