Publications related to Advanced analytical electron microscopy applied to Solid Oxide Cell materials and their degradation

Microsecond Time-Resolved Cryo-Electron Microscopy

Recently, single-particle cryo-electron microscopy emerged as a technique capable of determining protein structures at near-atomic resolution and resolving protein dynamics with a temporal resolution ranging from second to milliseconds. This thesis describ ...

EPFL2024

Polydopamine-coated photoautotrophic bacteria for improving extracellular electron transfer in living photovoltaics

Fabian Fischer, Ardemis Anoush Boghossian, Charlotte Elisabeth Marie Roullier, Melania Reggente, Mohammed Mouhib, Patricia Brandl, Hanxuan Wang

Living photovoltaics are microbial electrochemical devices that use whole cell–electrode interactions to convert solar energy to electricity. The bottleneck in these technologies is the limited electron transfer between the microbe and the electrode surfac ...

2024

Structural study of nickelate based heterostructures

Jean-Marc Triscone, Duncan Thomas Lindsay Alexander, Bernat Mundet, Chih-Ying Hsu

Heterostructures consisting of SmNiO3 and NdNiO3 alternating layers with additional LaAlO3 spacer layers were grown and fully characterized by means of x-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, and scanning transmission electron microscopy. A change in t ...

Aip Publishing2024

Electrochemical devices and computer science: water/thermal management of proton exchange membrane fuel cells and electrolyzers in different scales

Hossein Pourrahmani

The current restrictions on the registration of combustion engines in different countries and the harmful impacts of fossil fuels on the environment and human health have motivated decision-makers to use batteries and/or fuel cells as alternatives for comb ...

EPFL2023

Quasi-operando Transmission Electron Microscopy Diagnostics for Electrocatalytic Processes in Liquids

Vasiliki Tileli

It is of great interest to the energy community to understand how the mechano-physico-chemical phenomena that eventually lead to device degradation are related to the startup, operation, and shutdown phases. For electrocatalytic systems operating in liquid ...

Swiss Chemical Soc2024

Composition and Element Distribution Mapping of γ′ and γ" Phases of Inconel 718 by High-Resolution Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy and X-ray Energy-Dispersive Spectrometry

Philippe Buffat

The main strengthening mechanism for Inconel 718 (IN718), a Ni-based superalloy, is precipitation hardening by gamma ' and gamma '' particles. It is thus essential, for good alloy performance, that precipitates with the desired chemical composition have ad ...

MDPI2024

Evaluation of Interface and Residual Strain of NiTi Layer Deposited on NiTiX Substrate by Laser Powder Bed Fusion

Elyas Ghafoori, Christian Leinenbach, Irene Ferretto, Mahbod Golrang, Mahshid Memarian

This study investigates the microstructure and properties of functionally graded NiTi alloy bilayers. The NiTi layer is printed by laser powder bed fusion on a NiTiX (where X is Hf or Cu) substrate prepared by vacuum arc remelting. Specimens produced with ...

Wiley-V C H Verlag Gmbh2024

Electron-beam based nanoscale quantum controls

Hoda Shirzad

Advancing quantum technologies depends on the precise control of individual quantum systems, the so-called qubits, and the exploitation of their quantum properties. Nowadays, expanding the number of qubits to be entangled is at the core of the developments ...

EPFL2024

Spinel Protective Coatings for Solid Oxide Cell (SOC) Interconnects (ICs)

Samaneh Daviran

Abstract The degradation of metal interconnects (ICs) in Solid Oxide Cells (SOCs) primarily results from chromium (Cr) oxide scale growth on stainless-steel substrates, causing ohmic loss and air-side electrode poisoning by Cr. This thesis addresses these ...

EPFL2024

Revealing the Mechanism Underlying 3D-AFM Imaging of Suspended Structures by Experiments and Simulations

Marcos Penedo Garcia

The invention of 3D atomic force microscopy (3D-AFM) has enabled visualizing subnanoscale 3D hydration structures. Meanwhile, its applications to imaging flexible molecular chains have started to be experimentally explored. However, the validity and princi ...

Wiley-V C H Verlag Gmbh2024

Controlled Formation of Nanoribbons and Their Heterostructures via Assembly of Mass-Selected Inorganic Ions

Klaus Kern

Control of nanomaterial dimensions with atomic precision through synthetic methods is essential to understanding and engineering of nanomaterials. For single-layer inorganic materials, size and shape controls have been achieved by self-assembly and surface ...

Wiley-V C H Verlag Gmbh2024

Solution-based Cu+ transient species mediate the reconstruction of copper electrocatalysts for CO2 reduction

Raffaella Buonsanti, Anna Loiudice, Jan Vávra, Petru Pasquale Albertini, Gaétan Philippe Louis Ramona

Understanding metal surface reconstruction is of the utmost importance in electrocatalysis, as this phenomenon directly affects the nature of available active sites. However, its dynamic nature renders surface reconstruction notoriously difficult to study. ...

Nature Portfolio2024

Microstructure - Electrochemical Surface Reactivity Relationship of Electrochemically Grown Manganese Oxides Films

Roberto Cestaro

This Thesis provides a comprehensive and correlative investigation of the microstructure, chemical state, and electrochemical reactivity of manganese oxide (MnOx) films, aiming to gain a deeper understanding of the deposition and dissolution mechanism of M ...

EPFL2024

Controlling crystal cleavage in focused ion beam shaped specimens for surface spectroscopy

Philip Johannes Walter Moll, Matthias Carsten Putzke, Andrew Scott Hunter

Our understanding of quantum materials is commonly based on precise determinations of their electronic spectrum by spectroscopic means, most notably angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and scanning tunneling microscopy. Both require atomicall ...

Aip Publishing2024

Measuring electrical properties in semiconductor devices by pixelated STEM and off-axis electron holography (or convergent beams vs. plane waves)

Victor Carle Adrien Boureau

We demonstrate the use of both pixelated differential phase contrast (DPC) scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and off-axis electron holography (EH) for the measurement of electric fields and assess the advantages and limitations of each techn ...

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2024

Fluorescence microscopy: A statistics-optics perspective

Aleksandra Radenovic

Fundamental properties of light unavoidably impose features on images collected using fluorescence microscopes. Accounting for these features is often critical in quantitatively interpreting microscopy images, especially those gathering information at scal ...

Amer Physical Soc2024

Reversible photo-electrochemical device for solar hydrogen and power generation

Sophia Haussener, Alexandre Dominique M. Cattry, Saurabh Yuvraj Tembhurne, Matthieu Jonin, Mahendra Patel

A reversible photo-electrochemical device operating under concentrated irradiation could offer a stand-alone solution for producing solar fuel (in photo-driven electrolysis mode) and power (in fuel cell mode). This strategy would present the advantage of h ...

2024

Optimizing Atomic Layer Deposition Processes with Nanowire-Assisted TEM Analysis

Johann Michler, Ivo Utke, Xavier Maeder

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is one of the premier methods to synthesize ultra-thin materials on complex surfaces. The technique allows for precise control of the thickness down to single atomic layers, while at the same time providing uniform coverage ev ...

Wiley2024

Membrane electrode assembly simulation of anion exchange membrane water electrolysis

Jan Van Herle, Zoé Mury, Suhas Nuggehalli Sampathkumar, Khaled Lawand

Anion exchange membrane water electrolysis (AEMWE) offers a green hydrogen production method that eliminates the need for platinum group metals (PGM) as electrocatalysts. This study employs a COMSOL (R) 6.0 model to simulate a 1x1 cm(2) Ni fibre - Raney (R ...

Elsevier2024

A continuous-wave and pulsed X-band electron spin resonance spectrometer operating in ultra-high vacuum for the study of low dimensional spin ensembles

Giovanni Boero, Fabio Donati, Soyoung Oh

We report the development of a continuous-wave and pulsed X-band electron spin resonance (ESR) spectrometer for the study of spins on ordered surfaces down to cryogenic temperatures. The spectrometer operates in ultra-high vacuum and utilizes a half-wavele ...

Aip Publishing2024