News

Two of our PhD students, Thomas Götsch and Norbert Köpfle, have been awarded with the 1669 Conference Scholarship (provided by the sponsorship association "1669 — Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft") for their participation in the SOFC-XV solid oxide fuel cell conference in Hollywood, Florida in July. This conference is organized by the Electrochemical Society.

There, Thomas will give three talks about the electronic structure of YSZ, the stability of NiCu anodes in micro-SOFCs as well as about the characterization of iron exsolution phenomena in lanthanum strontium ferrite perovskite anodes. Norbert will hold a talk about his studies on the dry reforming reaction of methane on Zr-Pd model systems. Details about these presentations can also bee gathered from the following proceedings papers:

Today, Maximilian Watschinger successfully defended his Master's thesis regarding in situ and operando FT-IR studies on Cu/ZrO₂ catalysts.

Thomas Götsch has received the EMS Scholarship for his contribution to the 13^th Multinational Congress on Microscopy 2017 in Rovinj, Croatia, entitled "Spectroscopic Investigation of the Electronic Structure Phase Diagram of Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia in an Electron Microscope". This scholarship is awarded by the European Microscopy Society.

Last week, three member sof our group (Bernhard Klötzer, Thomas Götsch and Norbert Köpfle) were present at the 6^th installment of the annual 'FOXSKI' PhD workshop of our SFB FOXSI in Haus im Ennstal.  Thomas Götsch and Norbert Köpfle both gave talks there.

Corsin Praty finished his Bachelor thesis and gave his final presentation with the title 'Untersuchung der Eisenausscheidung aus La_0.6Sr_0.4FeO_3-δ unter reduzierenden Bedingungen' where he investigated the iron exsolution in lanthanum strontium ferrite under reducing conditions.

Kevin Ploner successfully finished his Master's studies with his thesis entitled 'Structure-Activity Relationships in Methanol Steam Reforming on Cu/ZrO₂ Catalysts' today.

Norbert Köpfle has obtained the degree Master of Science by defending his thesis 'Untersuchung katalytischer Synergismen an Oxid-(Bi)Metall-Grenzflächensystemen anhand Brennstoffzellen-relevanter Reformierungsreaktionen'.

As of today, our research group welcomes two new students: Daniel Hauser will start his Master's thesis, during which he will conduct infrared spectroscopic measurements on selected thin film systems. Additionally, Günther Kogler will investigate perovskite-supported metal nanoparticles as part of his Bachelor's thesis.

Corsin Praty has decided to join us to complete his Bachelor's thesis. He will work on elucidating the segregation effects on LSF perovskite systems that have previously been found by Ramona Thalinger.

Today, Eva-Maria Köck and Michaela Kogler successfully defended their PhD theses titled 'Application-oriented in-situ/operando FT-IR Spectroscopy on SOFC anode oxides' and 'Operando/ in-situ electrochemical impedance spectroscopy analysis on SOFC-relevant anode materials'.

Last week, a large part of our group has travelled to the annual FOXSI PhD workshop in Haus im Ennstal. There, four talks were given by Thomas Götsch, Eva-Maria Köck and Michaela Kogler, Norbert Köpfle, as well as Matthias Grünbacher.

Today, two new Master students started their work within our research group: Kevin Ploner and Maximilian Watschinger.

Kevin will perform catalytical measurements, while Maximilian will be responsible for setting up our new IR spectrometer in preparation for future measurements.

Yesterday, Michaela Kogler received the Dr. Otto Seibert award for her publication titled "Methane Decomposition and Carbon Growth on Y₂O₃, Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia, and ZrO₂".[1]

Today, Thomas Götsch was awarded with the IUPAC Poster Prize at the 16^th Austrian Chemistry Days. He received the award for presenting his poster titled "From Zirconia to Yttria — Sampling the YSZ Phase Diagram Using Sputter-Deposited Thin Films", showcasing his work regarding the crystallography and electronic structure of YSZ.

After already successfully obtaining his Bachelor's degree in our group, Norbert Köpfle decided to return to us to complete his Master's thesis. He will be conducting research regarding perovskites using our XPS UHV setup.

Our group was represented at the 1^st International FOXSI Symposium by several members. Eva-Maria Köck and Michaela Kogler jointly gave the concluding talk of the conference.

Some of our members just returned from the 4th Annual FOXSI PhD workshop ("FOXSKI") in Haus im Ennstal. There, our group gave four talks and presented one poster.

Together with our project partners from Jürgen Fleig's and Günther Rupprechter's groups, Raffael Rameshan and Bernhard Klötzer have co-authered a publication in the Angewandte Chemie. During measurements at the BESSY, in situ XPS measurements of perovskite electrodes during electrolysis reactions were performed.

Today, our members Michaela Kogler and Eva-Maria Köck have been presented with the Eduard-Wallnöfer award for their research regarding energy sources of tomorrow.

Today, Thomas Götsch sucessfully defended his Master's thesis regarding the Investigation of the Nanoscale Kirkendall Effect in Pd-Based Intermetallic Phases (supervised by Simon Penner) and has thus acquired the degree of Master of Science (MSc). In his thesis, Thomas prepared and analyzed hollow nanoparticles of various intermetallic phases between Pd and Ga, Ge or Sn as oxide-supported thin film systems by means of transmission electron microscopy.

Thomas will continue to stay in our group for his PhD thesis and will focus on the preparation of thin film systems and their characterization using microscopic techniques.

Eva-Maria Köck received the CAST award.

From today on, Matthias Grünbacher will write his Master's thesis in our group. His focus will be on adsorption measurements on perovskites.

We welcome Thomas Götsch as part of our research group since he joined us for his Master's thesis. His research will deal with electron microscopy studies of the Nanoscale Kirkendall Effect in palladium-containing intermetallic phases.

Our PhD student Lukas Mayr received the Eduard-Wallnöfer award for the development of highly-efficient catalyst materials for use in fuel cells.