For the first time, an international research team has been able to observe how solute elements introduce new grain boundary phases using state-of-the-art microscopy and simulation techniques.
Hydrogen as an energy source can be produced from water through electrolysis, particularly effectively with manganese-containing cobalt spinel catalysts.
Ammonia is considered as a promising transport medium for hydrogen. However, an efficient process is necessary to convert it back into hydrogen and nitrogen.
At room temperature and low pressure, metal powders are expected to safely store green hydrogen.
Researchers are laying the foundation for industrial-scale hydrogen production.
Dislocations significantly influence metal properties. Markus Stricker aims to uncover their behavior through simulations.
In a new project, partners from industry and academia are working together to analyze pharmaceutical substances with much greater precision than before
Carbon-based bipolar plates have the potential to replace titanium bipolar plates in proton exchange membrane electrolysis
Producing of hydrogen peroxide from the splitting of water with the presence of carbonate
This concept could transform both hydrogen and fertilizer production
Using AI-supported image data analytics
An extended version of OPTIMADE, detailed in the journal Digital Discovery, was developed with contributions from Prof. Dr. Miguel Marques and Prof. Dr. Silvana Botti of Ruhr University Bochum, members of the interdisciplinary Research Center Future Energy Materials and Systems (RC FEMS).
Prof. Dr. Lars Borchardt's team has developed a gold-coated grinding bowl for ball mills that converts alcohols into aldehydes without harmful solvents. This sustainable, reusable method opens new perspectives in catalysis and environmental problem-solving.
We extend our congratulations to MRD members Professor Viktor Scherer (co-speaker in the Collaborative Research Center) and Professor Holger Dette (vice-speaker of the newly approved Collaborative Research Center in statistics with the Technical University of Dortmund).
Techniques borrowed from microchip production can be used to create tiny components. Bochum-based researchers have come up with clever tricks to set them in motion.
MCIC 2024: Save the Date
Using machine learning in molecular dynamics simulations of complex systems.
Structure, dynamics and thermodynamics from atomistic simulations
From ab initio to the simulations of nanoclusters in few steps
A new research consortium aims to understand and design surfaces of complex metallic solid solutions with atomic precision.
Improving safety and durability of batteries requires a better understanding of processes that take place inside them at the atomic level. Tong Li intends to lay the foundations for this as part of a Consolidator Grant
The Chair for Materials Technology and the company Doerrenberg are collaboratively researching 3D-printable high-performance tool steels to integrate energy- and material-saving manufacturing processes.
Isabel Pietka is an avid physicist. And just an avid supporter of early career researchers. As co-organizer of an early career conference, she knows how important it is to be allowed to make and to learn from mistakes.
Hägele’s team has been studying the caloric effect for many years. Initially, the researchers used magnetic fields to generate cold with solids. However, this requires field strengths similar to those in an MRI machine – and could therefore not be implemented in a refrigerator or air conditioner. This is why Hägele and his colleagues Jörg Rudolph and Jan Fischer are now working with electric fields.
Catalysts should be efficient and durable. To find them, four teams are systematically working together on new concepts. They are being funded by the European Research Council (ERC) with 10 million euros.
Big data – at first glance, the term sounds like a promise. But a lot of data is useless unless someone provides structure. Someone like Markus Stricker.
Quantitative characterization of materials with ion beams at the Central Unit for Ion Beams and Radionuclides (RUBION)
Using a Physical Property Measurement System to control and modify a sample during a measurement
Providing insights into bonding states and the growth behaviour of coatings
Girls in grade 10 and older had the opportunity to attend a summer school in materials science this June. And they were allowed to try their hand at experiments set up for destruction.
Using atomic probe tomography to get an insight into the 3D atomic-scale chemistry and structure of materials
The new device will benefit the work of more than 100 researchers at Ruhr University Bochum.
Understanding materials through their microstructure
Assessing chemical and phase stability inhomogeneities by combining composition and phase maps
Three new professorships have been filled in Bochum and Duisburg-Essen, two of them with top-class female researchers.
A way to more accurate efficient simulations
Reducing Effort by Micromechanical Simulations
David Zanders completed his doctorate simultaneously in Bochum and Canada. In this interview, he reveals in what way it was a unique experience and how the exchange led him to competitive axe throwing.
Founder Chinmay Khare is supported in his venture by the Worldfactory Start-up Center and Worldfactory International.
An Efficient Sampling of the Grain Boundary Parameter Space
Exemplified by Textures of Solidification Structures in Powder Samples
Automatic Characterization of Material Morphologies with Advanced Computer Vision Techniques
One Step in the Digitalization Process of Knowledge
Molecular sieving with a natural two-dimensional membrane
A Way for Substitution of Primary Resources
New simulation model the considering chemical composition and initial microstructure
At the Department for Microstructure Physics and Alloy Design at the Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung
Researchers have produced identical photons with different quantum dots – an important step towards applications such as tap-proof communications and the quantum internet.
As part of her ERC Starting Grant, Anna Böhmer is researching specific electron states in superconductors. The recently discovered phenomenon raises many questions.
With the manufacturing process used so far, it was difficult to control the density of the structures. Now, researchers will be able to create a chessboard pattern. It is a step towards application.
Scientists have long tried to use graphene, which is composed of carbon, as a kind of sieve. But this material doesn’t have any pores. Now, a team has found an alternative material which comes with pores from the outset.
In the cement industry, carbon dioxide is an unavoidable by-product: it is formed when calcium carbonate is burned to calcium oxide and is subsequently released. As a result, the cement industry currently contributes four to eight percent of global CO2 emissions. In the newly launched "CO2" joint project, partners from industry and science are working on an alternative.
A new method can measure the electrical (re-)charging of boundary layers between very small, metallic particles and aqueous solutions and understand it at a molecular level.
Research into promising materials is hampered by the sheer number of possible candidates. A German-Danish team has developed an efficient method to solve this problem.
Catalyst surfaces have rarely been imaged in such detail before. And yet, every single atom can play a decisive role in catalytic activity.
Materials are ubiquitous. They affect every aspect of our daily lives. They are the basis for today’s cutting edge technologies and the availability of novel materials and efficient processing routes determine the pace at which innovations can proceed. This makes materials important to help mankind to find the right technological answers in the fields of energy, transport, health, housing and environment.
The SFB/Transregio 103 is a collaborative research center funded by the German Research Association DFG. It has reached its third four year finding period and focusses on Ni-base superalloy single crystals (SX).
Project B7 of the SFB/TR 103 aims at contributing to a better understanding of the formation and nature of crystal defects in single crystal Ni-base superalloys.
Relating local atomic geometry at defects and interfaces to local bond chemistry in single-crystal Ni-base and Co-base superalloys.
In order to enable further optimization of superalloys, there must be systematic investigations into the influence of individual alloying elements on several aspects. Project B8 serves this purpose by investigating the influence of Co, Ni, Cr, and W, on phase stability, diffusion kinetics, the energy of planar defects, all of which are playing major roles in creep of superalloys.
The CRC/TRR 247 „Heterogeneous Oxidation Catalysis in the Liquid Phase – Mechanisms and Materials in Thermal, Electro-, and Photocatalysis” aims at bringing heterogeneous oxidation catalysis in the liquid phase to a level of fundamental understanding that is comparable to metal catalysis in the gas phase, i.e. to unravel the nature of the catalytically active sites and the reaction mechanisms.
In these kinetic experiments, conversion and the selectivities to the various products comprising ketones, acids, peroxides, or epoxides are determined as a function of the process conditions, allowing us to derive rate laws.
In project A2 of the CRC/TR 247 anodic alcohol oxidation and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are induced by applying a potential in an electrochemical cell comprising three electrodes.
Predicting the effect that chemistry and processing have on the microstructure of any material is a highly valuable proficiency. The morphological and micromechanical properties of individual phases and features, together with the nature of their interactions, are ultimately responsible for the emerging mechanical properties. Deep knowledge of this cause-effect chain is critical to enabling the tailored materials design, the core topical subject of the ever-digitizing fields of Materials Science and Technology.
The Collaborative Research Centre/Transregio 287 BULK-REACTION explores the interaction of physical and chemical processes in reacting and moving dense particle systems passed by a gaseous fluid. BULK-REACTION combines the methods and expertise from reactive fluid mechanics with particle technology in a new multi-scale approach, ranging from microscopic pores inside particles, to the void spaces between particles, up to complete systems of industrial scale. Reacting dense particle systems form the basis of a multitude of processes and are present in a wide variety of industrial sectors (e.g. for energy storage solutions
Since 2000, International Max Planck Research Schools (IMPRS) have been established by the Max Planck Society (MPG) to promote young materials researchers. Talented junior scientists can earn a doctorate degree in excellent research environments. Looking back at the beginning and development of IMPRS SurMat which ends now.
The goal of the IMPRS RECHARGE is to decouple the primary photochemical processes that lead to capturing of solar energy from its later uses in technology or mobility. Since January 2022, research in the IMPRS SusMet focuses on the exploration of carbon-free sustainable metallurgy, employing hydrogen as reducing agent, direct electroreduction (electrolysis) and plasma synthesis.
