We are very happy that Nicholas joined the group as a doctoral student. He earned his M.Eng. (Chemical) and B.Sc.(Chemical Systems) from the University of Melbourne, Australia. Nicholas’s expertise includes process safety and the use of process modelling and simulation to improve safety outcomes. Welcome, Nicholas!

Today, our work on "Water-in-Salt Electrolytes Embedded in Polyacrylamide Hydrogels: A First Step toward Deformable Sodium-Ion Batteries" has been published in ACS Applied Polymer Materials.

Link: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsapm.5c03031

Congratulations to Phillip!

We are very happy that Fariza joined the group as a postdoctoral researcher. She earned a B.Sc. and an M.Sc. degree in Physics in Kazakhstan before completing her PhD in Materials Science in KTU,  Lithuania. Fariza's expertise includes materials synthesis, thin-film deposition, and advanced electrochemical and structural characterization. Welcome, Fariza!

Last week, Maria participated in the final of the Forum Junge Spitzenforschung competition, where she presented the atmospheric water harvesting research that she and Gustav are conducting. Our team earned fourth place, congratulations to both of you! Many thanks to Humboldt Innovations for hosting the event and for connecting us with industry partners.

This week, Gustav attended the 12th Lithium-Sulfur Workshop in Dresden. At the workshop, he had the opportunity to present our recent work on potassium-sulfur batteries by Chiara and to learn many new things both from academia and industry about sulfur-based batteries. Thanks to Fraunhofer IWS for organizing this nice event!

Robert did a great job in defending his Bachelor's thesis about “Sustainable alkali-metal batteries based on abundantly available sulfur, sodium and potassium". Congratulations, Robert, for the successful defense, and thank you for your contributions to the lab in the past months!

Today, our work on "Wetting Interactions Between Porous Carbon Hosts and Liquid Sodium-Potassium Alloys Toward Their Use in Negative Electrodes of Alkali-Metal Batteries" has been published in Advanced Functional Materials (Wiley).

Link: https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202523169

Congratulations to Johannes!

We are very happy that Olha joined the group as a research intern. She is currently pursuing a bachelor's degree in Computational Engineering Science at Technische Universität Berlin. Welcome, Olha!

This week, Chiara attended the International Society of Electrochemistry conference in Mainz. She had the opportunity to present her poster, “A potassium-sulfur battery with solid electrolyte, metallic anode, and liquid catholyte: spectroscopic insights into polysulfide evolution” and to discuss our research with researchers worldwide.

Last week, Andrea , Johannes and Gustav attended the Sodium Battery Symposium 6 (SBS 6) in Dresden. Andrea showed a poster about his recent progress in NASICON synthesis. Johannes showed a poster about his work on alkali-metal wetting phenomena in porous carbon hosts. Gustav gave a talk highlighting two recent projects from our group, also introducing the work from Naiyu Qi on "High-Precision Surface Tension Measurements of Sodium, Potassium, and Their Alloys via Du Noüy Ring Tensiometry" recently published in American Chemical Society Applied Materials & Interfaces. It was very motivating to see the progress made in the sodium battery community and connecting with the important researchers and companies in the field.

We are very happy that Wen joined the group as a research intern. She is currently pursuing a masters's degree in Polymer Science jointly offered by Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, and Universität Potsdam. Welcome, Wen!

We are very happy that several new students have joined our group. We welcome Benjamin and Lincoln as summer interns, Jessica as a student assistant, Hauke as an undergraduate student, and Alexander as a graduate student.

The Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM), the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB), and Humboldt University of Berlin (HU Berlin) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to establish the Berlin Battery Lab. The lab will pool the expertise of the three institutions to advance the development of sustainable battery technologies. The joint research infrastructure will also be open to industry for pioneering projects in this field. We are looking forward to this collaboration!

Photo: Uta Sommer, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Today, our work on "High-Precision Surface Tension Measurements of Sodium, Potassium, and Their Alloys via Du Noüy Ring Tensiometry" has been published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. Congratulations to Naiyu and Rachana!

Link: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsami.5c02183

In the past two weeks, we welcomed ten girls and boys from nearby schools for Girls'Day and Erlebnis Chemie@HU. During these two events, the students synthesized their own hydrogels, worked at the glovebox and learned about the basics of alkali metals. Thanks to Phil, Chiara, Maria and Daniela for organizing.

Recently, HU Berlin joined the Kompotenznetzwerk Lithium-Ionen Batterien e.V., KLiB. Last week, at the 50. KLiB Member Meeting in Frankfurt, Gustav introduced the battery research activities at HU Berlin to the KLiB community. Thanks to KLiB for inviting us and organizing this excellent networking event.

This week, Naiyu attended the Batterieforum Deutschland in Berlin. It was an excellent opportunity to present our work on “High-precision surface tension measurements of sodium-potassium alloys towards next-generation semi-solid alkali-metal batteries“ and discuss our research with experts from industry and academia.

Gustav recently started a position as guest researcher at Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung in Department 3 (Containment Systems for Dangerous Goods; Energy Storage). The doctoral work of Andrea Cornelio is our first shared project in which we explore next-generation NASICON-type solid electrolytes. We are looking forward to further expanding this nice link between our group and Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung.

We are very happy that Robert joined the group as an undergraduate student. He is currently pursuing a bachelor's degree in production engineering at University of Bremen. Welcome, Robert!

With his co-authors Carlos D. Díaz-Marín, Lorenzo Masetti, Miles A. Roper, Kezia E. Hector, Yang Zhong, Zhengmao Lu, Omer R. Caylan and Jeffrey C. Grossman, Gustav published a work on “Physics-based prediction of moisture-capture properties of hydrogels” in Nature Communications.

Link: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-53291-5