A pEek on the lab

Eidgenössische Materialprüfungs- und Forschungsanstalt (Switzerland)

Contacts: Artur BRAUN, artur.braun@empa.ch

Web-site: https://www.empa.ch/web/s201/ceramic-electrodes-electrolytes

LAB and RESEARCH

"Textbooks on electrochemical energy conversion and storage, renewable energy and electromobility"

EMPA, LABORATORY FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE CERAMICS

Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, is a member of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (Swiss FIT), with over 1'000 staff and students at three locations in Switzerland. The headquarter in Dübendorf has numerous Laboratories (Abteilungen, Divisions) equipped with various standard and modern scientific tools. Empa Akademie and Empa NEST at the Dübendorf campus are platforms for hosting workshops, symposia and conferences. The Laboratory for High Performance Ceramics (LHPC) at Empa is a center of competence in ceramics synthesis, processing, and science. Most of the lab's activities concern synthesis, processing and shaping of ceramic precursors and materials and components for numerous industrial applications. For about 20 years, one of its four research groups has conducted research in electrochemical energy conversion, literally high temperature (solid oxide) fuel cells, and later semiconductor photoelectrochemistry and lithium ion battery cells. This group has attained international acclaim for their electrochemistry research and operando and in situ studies at synchrotron and neutron facilities.

Design engineers and machine shop technicians at Empa are experienced in making custom-built electrochemical cells for operando studies.

"Photoelectrochemistry, high temperature solid state electrochemistry, solid state electrochemistry, bio-electrochemistry with potentiostats, impedance analyzers, QCMB, GC."

ELECTROCHEMISTRY LABORATORY

This laboratory was established for experiments on high temperature (solid oxide) fuel cells and ceramic proton conductors funded by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy, later also lithium ion batteries, semiconductor photoelectrochemistry for solar fuel production, and bio-photoelectrochemistry for artificial photosynthesis with funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation, Swiss Federal Office of Energy, and the European Commission. We have potentiostats from Gamry, Ivium, Voltalab, Amel; Frequency response analyzers for electrical and electrochemical impedance studies by Solartron, Gamry, Ivium, Voltalab, ProboStat® from NorEcs, Shimadzu Gas Chromatograph for operando photoelectrochemical studies, fuel cell anode poisoning reactor chamber, solar cell simulators, two fume hoods, electrophoresis setup, tube furnace, bio shaker incubator.

"UV vis spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, monochromatic light source, Kelvin probe, Air photoemission spectrometer, PAM fluorescence spectrometer for photosynthesis, optical microscope."

OPTICAL SPECTROSCOPY

This laboratory is equipped with a Kelvin Probe KP020 and with an Air Photoemission Spectrometer. Both can measure the work function of solid samples based on contact potential difference. The spectrometer comes with a Xenon light source and can produce valence band spectra of materials under ambient condition. The laboratory has a monochromatic light source resp. spectrograph from LotOriel Omni lambda-300, and two Thorlabs CSM 200 UV vis spectrometers, one integrating sphere, and numerous optical components to assemble experiments, plus a xenon lamp and deuterium lamp. The laboratory has also a Thorlabs Raman spectrometer with an open architecture to run liquids in transmission and samples in reflectance mode. We have also a PAM fluorescence spectrometer to measure photosynthesis using microfibers. Most experiments we can run in situ or operando.

PEOPLE

Research Group Leader at Empa, Laboratory for High Performance Ceramics

aRTUR braun

Dr. Artur Braun studied at RWTH Aachen Physics, Metallurgy & Mining, and Human Medicine, and graduated from RWTH as Diplom-Physiker in 1996, after he had conducted his diploma thesis at Forschungszentrum Jülich in ultrathin magnetic films. Braun carried out his doctoral research at Paul Scherrer Institut in Switzerland on carbon based supercapacitors and graduated as Dr. sc. nat. from ETH Zürich in 1999. After two years of research on lithium batteries at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, USA, he moved to University of Kentucky for research on combustion aerosols. Since 2005, Braun works at Empa on various fields of electrochemical energy storage and conversion, including solid oxide fuel cells, lithium batteries, and photoelectrochemical cells. Braun has been using synchrotron radiation and neutron scattering for over 25 years, during which he and his research group pioneered several approaches, for example operando ASAXS on a lithium battery, operando X-ray Raman spectroscopy on a lithium battery, operando solar water splitting with soft X-ray NEXAFS, and operando studies on proton conductivity with ambient pressure XPS and quasi elastic neutron scattering, both "hybrid" with impedance spectroscopy. Braun has co-authored 200 publications and written four graduate level textbooks on electrochemistry, synchrotron radiation, photosynthesis, and hydrogen mobility. Dr. Braun has attracted around 6 Million Swiss Francs in research funds, and presented over 200 talks worldwide, half of which invited, keynote or plenary talks. He is active in human capacity building in African and other countries. The influential magazine Foreign Policy (Washington D.C.) has listed Braun and some of his group members as Leading Global Thinkers in 2014. Braun was MRS Meeting Chair in 2015 in San Francisco and became MRS Fellow in 2025.

Postdoctoral Researcher at Empa, Laboratory for High Performance Ceramics

aLEXEY rulev

Dr. Alexey Rulev joined the OpMetBat project as a postdoc in March 2023 and works now in the HyMetBat project. He graduated with honors from the Materials Science Department at Moscow State University in 2018 and later received his PhD in solid state chemistry and electrochemistry from the same university in 2022. While studying, Alexey performed joint doctoral studies at MSU and the Institute of Electrochemistry in Ulm University, where he gained experience in quantum chemistry calculations. His PhD thesis was focused on lithium metal electrodeposition, and he has also gained general experience in the field of lithium-ion batteries. In addition, he participated in experiments at synchrotron and neutron radiation sources and was part of a project investigating electrochemical interfaces using these techniques. Dr. Rulev is fully funded by the HyMetBat project. His Empa activities include in situ and operando studies on ceramic proton conductors and lithium batteries with synchrotron nuclear resonance vibration spectroscopy (NRVS) and computational modelling of experiments.

Scientist at Empa, Laboratory for High Performance Ceramics

NIKILAY rYZHKOV

Dr. Nikolay Ryzhkov joined Empa in 2022 as electrochemist, coming from Max Planck Institute in Potsdam and graduate from ITMO University in St. Petersburg, and has been working since in two bilateral projects on bio-based artificial photosynthesis for energy and space applications with partners in Belgium and in Korea, respectively, fully funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. While not funded by OpMetBat and HyMetBat, he supports his group occasionally for battery experiments, recently at the synchrotrons in Berkeley and in Stanford.

Visiting Professor at Empa, Laboratory for High Performance Ceramics

SELMA ERAT

Professor Dr. Selma Erat from Mersin University in Türkiye is visiting Professor at Empa, with funding by the Swiss National Science Foundation. She is representing Mersin University as co-PI in the OpMetBat and HyMetBat projects. During her five months visit to Empa, she engages in the combination of experiment and theory for charge carrier dynamics in electrochemical systems.

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