News

Julius' new paper was published in Nature Communications!

13 April 2021



Our new paper On the limitation in assessing the stability of oxygen evolution catalysts using aqueous model electrochemical cells was published today in Nature Communications. In this work, we tackle the discrepancy in the lifetimes of oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysts between aqueous model systems (AMS), which are commonly employed in fundamental research and polymer electrolyte membrane based membrane electrode assemblies (MEA), which are state of the art in today's water electrolyzers.

With a newly developed setup, we present the first measurement of real dissolution rate in an MEA system. A striking difference in the stability of an iridium oxide catalyst in the MEA system was observed compared to our established scanning flow cell coupled to an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (SFC-ICP-MS). Thus, a series of measurements in AMS was performed to search for the origins of this discrepancy.

Our results indicate two main contributors being responsible for the dissolution discrepancy—first, a general overestimation of the acidity of the conditions in the MEA. Second, iridium oxide stabilizes in the MEA system on longer timescales.

We expect our findings to lead to a better understanding of OER catalyst degradation and, subsequently, to better performing water electrolyzers.

More details can be found in Nature Communications under the following link: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22296-9.



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The Best Poster Award won by Tuani Carla Gentil in the 34th Topical Meeting of the ISE


23 March 2023



Great job, Tuani!


Lucía Morales joined our group as a new Master student!


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Welcome, Lucía!


Ken has been selected for the HIDA Trainee Network!


17 February 2023



Congratulations, Ken!


Konrad successfully defended his PhD thesis


16 December 2022



Congratulations, Dr. Konrad Ehelebe!


Carolin Igel joined our group as a new Master student!


21 October 2022



Welcome, Carolin!


Visiting researcher Dr. Kavita Kumar also joined our group!


13 September 2022



Welcome, Kavita!


Our visiting researcher Dr. Dyovani Coelho just joined us!


12 September 2022



Welcome, Dyovani!


Kamyar Parsi joined us as a new master student!


8 September 2022



Welcome, Kamyar!


Yunsheng Qiu joined our team as a PhD student!


23 August 2022



Welcome, Yunsheng!


Daniel and Konrad will attend the upcoming Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting!


6 May 2022



Congratulations, Daniel and Konrad!


Daniel and Ken got an ECS Travel Grant Award!


6 May 2022



Congratulations, Daniel and Ken!


Alexandre Nozadze joined our group as a bachelor student!


1 April 2022



Welcome, Alexandre!


Our ACS Energy Letters paper is a highly read article!


3 March 2022



Congratulations, Konrad!


Tuani Carla Gentil joined us as a guest researcher!


1 March 2022



Welcome, Tuani!


New Article out in ACS Energy Letters: Benchmarking Fuel Cell Electrocatalysts Using Gas Diffusion Electrodes: Inter-lab Comparison and Best Practices


24 January 2022



Nice work, Konrad!


Successful defenses of our master's students!


24 December 2021



Congratulations, Elisabeth, Marvin, and Nico!


Tatiana Priamushko just joined our group as a new PostDoc!


8 December 2021



Welcome, Tatiana!


Our latest review “Limitations of aqueous model systems in the stability assessment of electrocatalysts for oxygen reactions in fuel cell and electrolyzers” was selected as front cover in Current Opinion in Electrochemistry.


17 November 2021



Bridging the fundamental and applied science!


Dr. Florian Speck won the Jülich Excellence Award 2021!


25 October 2021



Congratulations, Dr. Florian Speck!


Ken’s latest publication was selected as the front cover for the upcoming issue of ACS Measurement Science AU.


21 October 2021



Congratulations, Ken!