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SUMMARY:MechE Colloquium: Functional materials for renewable energy storag
 e and conversion – sustainable and scalable materials design for photoca
 talysts and battery materials
DTSTART:20260407T120000
DTEND:20260407T130000
DTSTAMP:20260404T155452Z
UID:83be93c84cf2c736ab91b9fccb6db9f67796758be297bbb697ea7492
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Simone Pokrant\, Department Chemistry and Physics of M
 aterials\, Paris-Lodron University Salzburg\nAbstract: Renewable energy c
 onversion and storage are pressing topics in applied research today\, as t
 he use of non-fossil energy sources is essential to reduce CO2 emissions.
  Solar and wind energy harvesting combined with chemical energy storage in
  batteries or fuels\, such as hydrogen\, are essential processes\, that ne
 ed to be improved in terms of efficiency\, long-term stability\, scalabili
 ty and sustainability. Although significant progress has been made\, many 
 proposed photo- or electrochemical devices show satisfying short-term effi
 ciencies in the laboratory but are too cost-intensive\, too unstable and/o
 r not sustainable enough for large-scale applications [1][2]. This is ofte
 n the case\, because they rely on rare materials and/or they are not fabri
 cated using scalable processes. From a material science point of view\, ke
 y areas to improve dynamic processes include\, of course\, the bulk proper
 ties of the active materials themselves\, as well as the interfaces betwee
 n the active materials and the electrolyte [3]. \nIn this contribution co
 ncepts are presented how to improve the function of active materials in ph
 oto- or electrochemical energy applications by materials and interface des
 ign while respecting sustainability criteria. Our strategies include morph
 ology control by scalable synthesis procedures and chemical modifications 
 using earth-abundant and sustainable additives. These approaches are showc
 ased in two application areas: photocatalysis for solar water-splitting an
 d post-lithium-ion batteries. In both cases vanadium-based chemistries and
  low energy hydrothermal synthesis processes are used to produce devices w
 ith improved function [4\,5].\n[1] A. Vilanova\, P. Dias\, T. Lopes and A.
  Mendes\, Chemical Society Reviews 53 (2024) 2388\n[2] S. Maddukuri\, D. M
 alka\, M.S. Chae\, Y. Elias\, S. Luski\, D. Aurbach\, Electrochimica Acta 
 354 (2020) 136771\n[3] Z. Xi and M. Liu\, npj Materials Sustainability 3 (
 2025) 18\n[4] J. Praxmair\, F. Creazzo\, D. Tang\, J. Zalesak\, J. Hörndl
 \, S. Luber and S. Pokrant\, ChemElectroChem 12 (2025) e202500280\n[5] J. 
 LamChen\, J. Zalesak and S. Pokrant\, (2026) submitted to Journal of Power
  Sources\n\n\nBiography: Simone Pokrant is Professor of Functional Materi
 als at the department of Chemistry and Physics of Materials\, University o
 f Salzburg (Austria) since 2018 and Vice Dean of the Faculty of Natural an
 d Life Sciences since 2024. She previously served\, among others\, as rese
 arch group leader at Empa (Switzerland) and spent ten years in industry as
  a technical leader and product manager\, specializing in physical charact
 erization and electron microscopy at Philips (France) and Zeiss (Germany).
  She holds a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Marburg (Ger
 many). Her research interests focus on the development of materials for re
 newable energy storage and conversion\, particularly for batteries and pho
 tocatalysis. So far\, she has contributed to more than 70 peer-reviewed ar
 ticles.
LOCATION:MED 0 1418 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==MED%200%201418 https://epf
 l.zoom.us/j/61360740951
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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