How do ions and defects migrate within energy materials – and can such movements be controlled? This was a central question of a workshop on September 16-17, 2024, at the Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) at TU Munich. The two-day event was organized by Prof. Laura Herz (University of Oxford), who is currently a Hans Fischer Senior Fellow at the IAS, and her hosts – e-conversion researchers Prof. David Egger (TU Munich) and Prof. Thomas Bein (LMU Munich) – as well as Dr. Waldemar Kaiser (TU Munich).
The workshop aimed to discuss similarities in novel solar and battery materials that share the properties of ion and defect movement. “Another important topic was how such migrations can be controlled by external stimuli such as light,” says Egger. A better understanding of how such fundamental phenomena occur in detail is a central topic in the e-conversion Cluster of Excellence. “It was a very inspiring atmosphere to spend two days discussing this with more than 20 international researchers.” In particular, the different scientific backgrounds of the participants repeatedly provided valuable impetus for the workshop and led to an intensive exchange on the fundamental processes in energy materials.