News

Platinum is the common catalyst material for the oxygen reduction in fuel cells and its main cost factor. With a machine learning technique, scientists from e-conversion now can forecast and optimize the performance of catalysts with less platinum.

Three new Hans Fischer Senior Fellows will be joining our community for the next three years: Laura Herz, Ib Chorkendorff and Natalia Shustova will be working on the creation of new materials for energy conversion and on understanding the associated energy conversion processes.

Scientists have developed a way of extracting a richer palette of colours from the available spectrum by harnessing disordered patterns inspired by nature that would typically be seen as black.

It´s a pity – most photocatalysts have an absorption maximum outside the sunlight spectrum. But now scientists from the e-conversion cluster were able to significantly increase the energy yield by using nanophotonic methods.

In the battery of the future, solids will replace the currently used electrolyte solutions. A team of e-conversion scientists has now developed a series of new sodium ion conductors. The secret of the best material in the series lies in the exact mixing of the ingredients.

With a kick-off meeting, the e-conversion graduate program officially started on St. Nicholas´ Day. The newly elected student board is looking forward to the ideas of their PhD colleagues and to creating a lively network.

The nobel metal iridium is ideally suited for hydrogen production via electrolysis – and it is extremely expensive. But now a new kind of electrode helps you save real money. It is made of highly porous material and does an excellent job with just a hint of iridium.

Hybrid 2D materials offer opportunities from quantum engineering to energy applications. The Munich workshop gave profound insight into the cutting-edge research and fostered collaborations between scientists from Cambridge and LMU.

The ingredients had been just perfect: around 120 motivated participants and top-level speakers, warm September sunshine and as venue the Venice International University on the island San Servolo in the Venice lagoon. A gorgeous place for the first e-conversion conference from September 9-13, 2019. Visit the image galleries!

A biosensor´s most important sign of quality is sending a clear color signal when the target molecule binds. The signal strength depends on the distance of the fluorescence molecules involved. Now members of the Cluster of Excellence “e-conversion” are able to define and optimize this distance with nanometer precision.

An interdisciplinary research team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has built platinum nanoparticles for catalysis in fuel cells: The new size-optimized catalysts are twice as good as the best process commercially available today.

LMU's new Nano Institute on Königinstrasse was officially opened on June 17, 2019. Its research staff will seek novel ways of exploiting the unique properties of nanomaterials to enhance the efficiency of energy generation and storage.

The e-conversion stand at the Munich Streetlife Festival in May was a great success. Many people tried the hands-on experiments and informed themselves about the cluster activities. Hope to see you again at the next festival on September 7-8, 2019!

Chemists of the e-conversion cluster have developed an efficient water splitting catalyst as part of a collaborative international research effort. The catalyst comprises a double-helix semiconductor structure encased in carbon nitride. It is perfect for producing hydrogen economically and sustainably.

On 4 May 2019, the e-conversion cluster was part of an impressive journey through the whole world of physics: the LMU Faculty of Physics had organized an Open House Day at the LMU main building to present its entire spectrum of research. More than 2,500 people came to attend the broad range of talks, lectures, workshops and lab tours.

Be it in a mobile, fridge or plane - transistors are everywhere. But often they are specialized for only one current range. Prof. Thomas Weitz (NIM) and his team have now developed a nanoscopic transistor of organic semiconductor material that is working perfectly at low and high currents.

Organic semiconductors are lightweight, flexible and easy to manufacture. But they often fail to meet expectations regarding efficiency and stability. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) are now deploying data mining approaches to identify promising organic compounds for the electronics of the future.

Photocells, catalysis, batteries? What is the most efficient and sustainable way to capture and convert energy into useful forms? The new Cluster will study the processes that take place at the interfaces between different materials.