Dr. Claudia Weidenthaler
Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany
Time: April 13, 02:30 pm
Venue：Conference Room on the first floor, 1# Energy Building
Introduction
Dr. Claudia Weidenthaler studied mineralogy at the University Würzburg (Germany), where she received her doctorate in 1995 for her crystallographic studies on the structures of different zeolite materials. After this she worked as staff researcher in the department of crystallography at the University of Bremen. In 1998 she joined the group of Ferdi Schüth at the Faculty of Chemistry at the University of Frankfurt. Since 1999 she has a position as senior researcher at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung in Mülheim an der Ruhr. Since 2012, she is group leader of the research group “Powder Diffraction and Surface Spectroscopy” at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung. In 2015, she obtained his habilitation at the University Duisburg-Essen. Her research focuses on the characterization of structure-property relationships of novel functional materials, especially by diffraction and spectroscopic methods.
Abstract
Understanding of structure-property relationships enables the design of tailor made materials for energy related applications. Diffraction experiments provide information on changes of bulk crystal structures, compositional changes, as well as microstructure properties. Scattering techniques highlighting different aspects of a material are small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) or total scattering (TS). While SAXS can be applied for studying the formation of particles, TS is a probe for analysis of local structures. Most interesting is the use of these techniques under reaction conditions because in situ studies provide direct insights on materials behavior under working conditions. Different energy related materials, such as solid-state hydrogen storage materials (complex hydrides, aminoalanes), hydrogen carriers (ammonia) and compounds used in electrochemistry, will be discussed with respect to structure-property relationships.
Storage of hydrogen in a solid would be a favorable storage technique since hydrogen is packed more densely than in a gas or even liquid hydrogen. New complex aluminum hydrides have been studied in great detail by in situ diffraction experiments from which crystal structure could be solved and dehydrogenation processes were followed, both allowing for deduction of reaction pathways. Decomposition of ammonia is one way for generating pure hydrogen for fuel cell application. This reaction requires catalysts which reduce the decomposition temperatures significantly. Changes of crystal structures and chemical compositions of different transition metal-based catalyst were studied under reaction conditions and correlated to their catalytic activity.
Contact:XIE Dong DNL1901(9583)