• Photoelectrochemical cells (PEC) for solar hydrogen, ammonia and CO2 reduction
• Photonic light trapping for photoelectrochemical water splitting
• Semiconductor photoelectrochemistry
• Neutron and X-ray methods for analysis of solid oxide fuel cells, batteries, and solar cells
• Nano-bio hybrid structures for artificial photosynthesis
• Development of neutron and X-ray operando in situ electrochemical methods
• Self organization and pattern formation for photoelectrode design
• Operando, in situ electrochemical and ex situ synchrotron studies on lithium ion batteries
• Gas sensors from metal oxide nano-particles
• Charge transport and charge carrier dynamics
• Human capacity building in Africa

News March 2025: Media coverage by SRF1 Wissenschaftmagazin (18'50'' - 20'50'') of our campaign on cyanobacteria at Jungfraujoch. 

News March 2025: I am happy MRS accepts me as one of their MRS Fellows in 2025.

News March 2025: We welcome Physics Professor Dr. Selma Erat from Mersin University for her SNF Research Visit.

News January 2025: We welcome our project collaborators Prof. Joey Ocon and Dr. DJ Matienzo from U Philippines Diliman for their project visit.

News January 2025: New paper accepted with Qianli Chen group and colleagues from Korea, USA, France on ambient pressure XPS on proton conductors.

News December 2024: We congratulate  PhD student Kidan G. Gebremariam for her L'Oreal UNESCO 2024 Award.

News September 2024: We welcome Ethiopian Physicist and ESKAS Fellow PhD student Kidan G. Gebremariam in our group.

News August 2024: New paper published - Restructurable materials for soft actuators, Qing Chen, Invited Feature Paper—Review MRS Distinguished Invited Speaker, Journal of Materials Research (2024). https://doi.org/10.1557/s43578-024-01423-4 

News August 2024: New paper published - Fluorescence and electron transfer of Limnospira indica functionalized biophotoelectrodes, Ryzhkov, Nikolay; Colson, Nora; Ahmed, Essra; Pobedinskas, Paulius; Haenen, Ken; Janssen, Paul; Braun, Artur, Photosynthesis Research, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-024-01114-5 

News July 2'024: 2^nd edition of Artur Braun's book published. X-Ray Studies on Electrochemical Systems - Synchrotron Methods for Energy Materials, Artur Braun In der Reihe De Gruyter Textbook https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110794038

News July 2024: New paper published - Electric Polarization-Dependent Absorption and Photocurrent Generation in Limnospira indica Immobilized on Boron-Doped Diamond, Ryzhkov, Nikolay, Colson, Nora, Ahmed, Essraa, Pobedinskas, Paulius, Haenen, Ken. Braun, Artur, Janssen, Paul J., ACS Omega https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.4c03925 

News May 2024: New paper published - Hygro-Dynamic and Conductive Actuator That Restructures and Heals by Water; Qing Chen, Tina Künniger, Qun Song, Kai Zhang, Andrei Chumakov, Yusuf Bulut, Constantin Harder, Peter Müller-Buschbaum, Stephan V. Roth, Artur Braun; First published: 23 May 2024 https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202402924 

News May 2024: PhD student Mrs. Gebremariam Kidan Gebreegziabher from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, has been selected as main applicant for the Swiss  Government Excellence Scholarship 2023-2024, and will be researching for one year in Braun's group at Empa from 1 September 2024 - 31 August 2025.

News April 2024: Braun, and Profs. Danielle Mai from Stanford University, Minkyu Kim from University of Arizona, Newaye Tegegne from Addis Ababa University, organize the Symposium "Bio-based and Biomimetic Polymers in Soft Robotics" at the MRS Spring Meeting 2024 in Seattle, WA, United States. Meeting Chairs Mmantsae Diale and Martin Kaltenbrunner are among the invited speakers. Among the MRS Best Poster Award Winners was also a poster from our Symposium: Yongyi Zhao, SB11.07.07 "A Self-Healing ElectricallyConductive OrganogelComposite". This Symposium is inspired by the COgITOR project.

News 11 February 2024: We welcome "returning" Visiting Professor Joey D. Ocon from University of the Phillipines Diliman, who spends his second stay at Empa now.

News 11 February 2024: We welcome Professor Julie Anne Del Rosario Paraggua from University of the Philippines Diliman, who will stay for one week and deliver a seminar talk with title "Levelized cost of hydrogen produced via solar- and wind-powered electrolysis in the Philippines".

News 01 February 2024: We welcome PhD student Ms. Glennise Faye Mejica from University of the Phillipines Diliman, who will be researching for two months on photoelectrochemical ammonia synthesis finded by the Swiss ASEAN project "Aurora".

News 23 November 2023: Dr. Nikolay Ryzhkov visits University of the Philippines Diliman and presents "Bio- and biomimicking interfaces for smart materials design and alternative energy harvesting".

News 07 October 2023: Artur Braun experiences rocket attacks during his sabbatical at Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.

News 28 September 2023: Manuscript accepted by Advanced Science (Wiley IF 17): "Entropy and Isokinetic Temperature in Fast Ion Transport", by Du, Peng; Zhu, Hong; Braun, Artur; Yelon, Arthur; Chen, Qianli.

News 15 September 2023: Dr. Kwanele Kunene and Dr. Loghman Jamilpanah interview each other for the COgITOR project.

News 30 August 2023: We congratulate our ESKAS Fellow Dr. Kwanele Kunene for her new position at Chalmers University in Sweden.

News 18 July 2023: NCSU Professor Michael F. Dickey visits our lab and delivers a seminar presentation to staff and students. Sponsored by EU COgITOR project.

News 9-13 July 2023: Prof. Joey Ocon and Dr. Donn Matienzo visit our lab and deliver seminar presentation. Sponsored by ASEAN Aurora  project.

News 23 May 2023: ASU Battery Professor Candace Chan visits our lab and delivers a seminar presentation to staff and students. Sponsored by EU OpMetBat project.

News May 2023: PhD student and Postdoc, now Professor Debajeet K. Bora in Morocco, in German ZDF TV on solar hydrogen and climate

Projects & Funding Agencies

Project Akronym	Description	Logo	Period
SHINE	Solar Harvesting and Integration to Photoelectrochemical Cell for Nitrogen Economy; with Univ. of the Philippines Diliman, Prof. Joey Ocon		2024-2025
3DCyan	3D Printed Algal Biophotoelectrochemical Reactor For PV And Solar Fuel Production	Korean-Swiss Science and Technology Programme (KSSTP)	2023-2026
Aurora	Renewable Ammonia with Univ. of the Philippines Diliman, Prof. Joey Ocon		2023
OpMetBat	Operando metrology for energy storage materials		2022 - 2025
HySPARC	Sustainable hydrogen production in space by radiation hard cyanobacterial biofilms in a photoelectrochemical (PEC) system using boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrodes		2022 - 2025
COgITOR	A new colloidal cybernetic system towards 2030		2021 - 2025
ESKAS	Electrosynthesis of Ammonia (South Africa)		2022 - 2023
PROTONIQUE 3	Proton conductivity in epitaxial strained thin films		2021 - 2025
PHOGAM	Flanders/Swiss Lead Agency Process: Charge and energy transfer between cyanobacteria and semiconductor electrodes under gamma-irradiation
SUNRISE	Solar Energy for a Circular Economy
Yonsei	Electrochemistry of the thylakoid membrane - metal oxide electrode assemblies
GIST	SNF Korean Swiss project: Molecular and physical aspects of dye sensitization of photoelec-trodes with copper-based sensitizer molecules
SSAJRP	Production of Liquid Solar Fuels from CO2 and Water: Using Renewable Energy Resources
Pattern Formation for PEC	Reaction-diffusion processes for the growth of patterned structures and architectures: A bottom-up approach for photoelectrochemical electrodes
PEC EPFL	Defects in the bulk and on surfaces and interfaces of metal oxides with photoelectrochemical properties: In-situ photoelectrochemical and resonant x-ray and electron spectroscopy studies
NANOPEC	Nanostructured Photoelectrodes for Energy Conversion
SOFC-Life	Solid Oxide Fuel Cells – Integrating Degradation Effects into Lifetime Prediction Models
MetInsTra	X-ray and electrochemical studies on solid Oxide fuel cells and related materials
HITEMPECHEM	X-ray and electrochemical studies on solid Oxide fuel cells and related materials

Among our competences is the synthesis of functional oxide nanoparticles (by flame processes), their characterisation and processing.

Powders can be used as fillers in polymer composites and coatings, or serve as a starting material for advanced ceramic components. Hereby special focus is put on the particles characteristics such as their shape, size and phase with the purpose to enable the development of materials with new or improved properties. Engineered quality powders are key to achieve innovation with the best performance and added-value of the materials.

We perform R&D collaborations in the frame of national and international projects with partners from industry and university.

> An overview of Smart Processing for Ceramics and Sensor-Composite Materials you find here:
Overview-PDF (982KB)

The Laboratory for High Performance Ceramics is engaged in the development of thermoplastic forming and the development of thermoplastic binder systems for pressing, extrusion, injection molding, dip coating and 3D printing of ceramic components. Due to its many years of experience, the group does not focus on a specific binder system, but rather develops and optimizes customer-oriented, individual solutions. In the course of these developments, binder systems for the thermoplastic 3D printing of ceramic powders are also being developed. The additive manufacturing process of thermoplastic composites (Fused Deposition Modeling - FDM or Fused Filament Fabrication - FFF) is a recognized and widespread technology for the production of complex macroscopic structures. Empa develops thermoplastic binder systems, which enable cost-effective printing of ceramic components with conventional (open-source) FDM printers. Figure 1 shows the most important factors that influence the 3D printing of ceramics.

Figure 1: Typical factors influencing thermoplastic 3D printing of ceramic materials
blue = machine factors,
red = material failures

The 3D printing of thermoplastic ceramics offers the possibility to produce components individually via layered deposition. Typically, thermoplastic filaments are fed into a heated nozzle via a Bowden extruder. The polymer binder is melted and deposited in a desired position. After cooling and hardening, a structure with a layer thickness between 0.03 and 1.2 mm can built up.

The process is divided into several production steps:

1. Compounding of the ceramic powder and the thermoplastic binder
2. Filament or granule production for thermoplastic 3D printing
3. 3D printing by melting the filament and layered deposition of the material
4. Thermal treatment (debinding and sintering of the components)

Post-treatment of the component surface can be done on the printed, debinded or sintered state. Figure 2 shows a commercially available simple 3D printer used for materials development.

Figure 2: Commercially available 3D printer for the development of thermoplastic ceramic materials.

Energy, Transportation, Medical and Industrial applications

• Red ceramics for high quality watches
• Lifejackets for deep-sea drills
• High-end brakes for the Cinquecento?
• An innovation in industrial wood cutting
• Electrodes for cardiac pace-makers
• Brennstoffzellen-Heizung wird salonfähig

Processing

• High strength alumina
• Processing and properties of Al/CNF-composites
• Effect of sintering additives on properties of Si3N4/MoSi2
• Healing treatment for defects in dental zirconia
• Pressureless infiltration of MMC

Joining, Design and Properties

• Innovative joining of ceramic materials
• Brazing of Si3N4-ceramic-composite to steel
• Thermo-mechanical stresses in planar SOFCs
• HT oxidation and corrosion of Si3N4-ceramics
• Failure tolerant multi-layer Si3N4-ceramics
• Fracture toughness using the SEVNB method

Services

• Mechanical characterization
• Failure analysis on catalyst of waste burner