Our interests - Research activities

Modern energy- and pollution-control technologies are necessary to ensure our present quality of life. Our goal is to discover and develop novel functional materials by means of innovative solid state chemistry methods.... more

Research Activities

• Solid State Chemistry
• Heterogeneous Catalysis
• Solid State Analyses

Our services in materials and environmental analysis

• Sample composition using X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF)
• Determination of specific surface area using the BET method
• Investigation of the sample morphology using light and electron microscopy
• Determination of phase content using X-ray powder diffraction and Raman microspectroscopy
• Investigation of thermal properties (reactivity and stability) of materials including gas-solid reactions, phase transformations, heat capacity, using thermogravimetry-mass spectrometry over a wide temperature range
• Thermal diffusivity and conductivity of materials using the Laser-flash method up to 1000°C
• Determination of electric conductivity and thermoelectric properties of materials (resistivity, Seebeck coefficient, Figure of merit) up to 1000°C
• Determination of catalytic activity in a lab scale rig
• Investigation of surface properties of noble metals and under reaction conditions using infrared spectroscopy
• Investigation of materials under reactive conditions (TPD, TPO, TPR, TPSR)

contact:

• Prof Dr. Anke Weidenkaff, Head of laboratory
  Andrea Gasser, Assistant
  Empa - Materials Science & Technology
  Überlandstrasse 129,
  CH-8600 Dübendorf
  e-mail: Andrea.Gasser@empa.ch
  Tel.: +41 44 823 4400

Title	Speaker	Date	Time	Room
To be announced	Marina Isachenko	25.03.10	9.30	LA373
TOM	Petr Tomes	11.03.10	9.30	LA373
To be announced	Elena Pérez Barrado	09.03.10	9.30	LA373
Heterogeneous Catalysis	Aglaé Auclaire	02.03.10	9.30	LA373
Understanding model three-way catalysts by operando XAS	Santosh Kumar	16.02.10	10.00	LA373
Nanoscale Oxide Materials: From Synthesis to Structure and Environmental Application	Ying Zhou (UniZH)	04.12.09	9.30	LA373
Cobaltates	Lassi Karvonen	20.10.09	9.30	LA373
Photocatalytic production of hydrogen	Gian Luca Chiarello	10.09.2009	9.30	LA373
Magnetism and Crystal Field Effect in Pr-Compounds	Vivek K. Anand	20.07.09	9:30	LA373
Reliability and endurance behavior of RRAM cells	Wan Shen	20.07.09	14:00	LA373
Non-aqueous sol-gel routes to nanostructured  metal oxides	Mohamed Karmaoui	20.07.09	17:00	LA373
TE modules characterisation	Patrick Hinz	06.07.09	10:00	LA373
Thermoelectric cobaltates	Antoine Brehault	16.06.09	10:00	LA373
Resistance switching	Andrey Shkabko	05.06.09	10:30	LA373
Ageing of Exhaust gas cat.	Oxana Korsak	26.05.09	10:00	LA373
Perovskite-type Catalysts	Arnim Eyssler	12.05.09	10:00	LA373
Thermoelectric Manganates	Dimas Alfaruq	27.04.09	10:00	LA373
Thermodynamic, magnetic and transport properties on FM Sr1-xNaxRuO3 with respect to weak localization effects	Petr Tomes	24.04.09	10:00	LA373
Sicherheitsbelehrung	M. Aguirre, A. Weidenkaff	21.04.09	10:00	LA373
Coupling spectroscopy with automotive catalysis	Davide Ferri	07.04.09	10:00	LA373
Thermal conductivity and specific heat measurements of solid materials	P. Hug	6.04.09	14:00	LA373
Thermal analysis as powerful technique in solid state chemistry	Petr Tomes	6.04.09	14:30	LA373
PLD	I. Marozau	9.03.2009	10:00	LA373
Structure-Properties Relationships in Layered Sodium Cobalt Oxide	Tong Zhou, CRISMAT Caen	17.02.09	10:00	LA373
Resistivity switching in Al/SrTiO3-xNy interfaces	Andrey Shkabko	10.02.09	10:00	LA373

Guests are welcome

• Departement of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Uni Berne
• Uni Mainz, Graduate School of Excellence
• ETHZ, Analytische Chemie

• Merging theory and experiments for state-of-the-art heterogeneous catalysis
• Synthesis and Properties of Thermoelectric Cobalt Oxides
• Structural changes produced in diesel soot by the addition of ferrocene fuel
• TEM workshop– Diffraction, High Resolution Image and Interpretation
• Modelling for undertanding the complexities originating from the interaction between oxide catalysts and the support
• Important research steps towards a full-scale battery and capacitor
• Workshop on electronic structure calculation
• Characterisation of treated SrTiO₃
• Screening of different ligands for the soft-chemistry synthesis of BaTiO₃
• Investigating Catalysts at Work
• New Solids and Nanoparticles for Future Materials and Applications
• Looking at heterogeneous liquid-phase catalysts at work – An ATR-IR approach
• Synchrotron-XRF in air pollution science: The APART project