News
- Empa's Dr. Artur Braun to deliver keynote speech at SPIE 2016 in San Diego on the Tuesday afternoon 30 August 2016: Water oxidation with holes: What we learn from operando studies.
- Empa's Dr. Rita Toth, and Prof. Mmantsae Diale from University of Pretoria to present concept for Urban Areas and Critical Infrastructure: Challenges and Opportunities for Resilient Cities. A Safe and Decentralised Solar Hydrogen Fuel Production and Storage for Residential Building and Mobility Applications. This is funded by the Swiss South African Joint Research Programme. Physicist Itani Madiba from UNISA and iThembaLABS in South Africa presented on the 22nd August 2016 a brillant farewell talk (Vanadium oxide films for space/satellite applications) at Empa Dübendorf on the occasion of his finishing of the Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship research stay at Empa.
- University of Pretoria Chemistry student Clarissa Gray presents great talk "Towards electrochemical reduction of CO2 to liquid fuels" on 18 August at Empa.
- Empa welcomes University of Pretoria Chemistry student Clarissa Gray for her visit from 15-23 August at Empa. The Swiss South African Joint Research Programme.
- University of Pretoria Researchers Prof. Mmantsae M. Diale and Physics student Gareth-John Moore, and Empa Researchers Dr. Artur Braun and PhD student (Uni Basel) Jens Top preparing for the Biohybrid Solarcells Meeting in the Netherlands this week 4-7 August 2016. They will present talks and posters on solar energy conversion and storage.
- SSAJRP investigator Prof. Mmantsae M. Diale from University of Pretoria Physics Department is Finalist for the 2015/2016 NSTF Awards. It is an extraordinary honour to be a NSTF Awards finalist; given the quality of the nominations received, the fierce competition which nominees are facing, and growing interest from the community every year.
- May 2016: MSc Chemist Jens Top joins Empa on solar water splitting research in the SSAJRP program.
- Empa welcomes University of Pretoria physics student Mr. Gareth Moore from the Diale group for his IAESTE research project on solar water splitting for the Swiss South African Joint Research Program.
- Researchers from Empa, EPFL, South Africa and Botswana got their second paper on solar water splitting just accepted by Journal of Materials Research.
- Research team from Empa and University of Basel in the News with their new paper on self-assembled Ru-Co electrocatalyst.
- Artur Braun of Empa is panel speaker on global warming at the Transformational Trends Forum 2015 in Washington D.C. and meets Governor and former Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt, political theorist Benjamin R. Barber, and FP 2015 Global Thinkers Boyan Slat, Johanna Schawartz and Gulalai Ismail.
- Award nominations due 25 November 2015. Science Diplomacy Call by the Science Forum South Africa. Place your nomination now!
- *** Empa/Uni Basel paper is highly cited!*** As of May/June 2015, the highly cited paper "In rust we trust. Hematite – the prospective inorganic backbone for artificial photosynthesis" received enough citations to place it in the top 1% of the academic field of Chemistry based on a highly cited threshold for the field and publication year.
- 30 October 2015: A research team from Empa and University of Basel and the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) in Korea are among the 12 grant winners in the Korean-Swiss Science and Technology Programme (KSSTP) and will jointly work in their project "Molecular and physical aspects of dye sensitization of photoelec-trodes with copper-based sensitizer molecules".
- 23 October 2015, The Guardian reports: South African students score tuition fee protest victory.
- 29 October 2015, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Veruscha Fester of Cape Peninsula University of Technology visits Empa Dübendorf and delivers talk about CPUT Nanoscience initiatives.
- 21-23 October 2015 in Basel, U Pretoria/Empa/Uni Basel/UNISA/iThemba project partners and consortium researchers Artur Braun, Niels Burzan, Mmantsae Diale, Kelebogile Maabong, Itani G. Madiba, Emil Roduner participated in the Swiss South African Joint Research Program Midterm Workshop at Wildt'sches Haus in Basel with oral and poster presentations.
- August 2015, Congratulations! South African Physicist and SSAJRP Collaborator Dr. Mmantsae Diale has been promoted to the rank of a Professor at University of Pretoria.
- 01 September 2015, Prof. Dr. Avner Rothschild to deliver seminar talk on solar water splitting photo-electrodes at Empa Dübendorf, VE 102, 11:00-12:00.
- 20 August 2015, Prof. Dr. Lionel Vayssieres to deliver seminar talk on Quantum-confined oxide heteronanostructures at Empa Dübendorf, VE 102, 11:00-12:00.
- 17-19 August 2015: SSAJRP partners Empa and University of Pretoria, and PSI host SNF International Exploratory Workshop on catalysis, photoelectrochemistry and x-ray spectroscopy.
- August - October 2015: Cape Peninsula University of Technology researcher Mahabubur Chowdhury to carry out research project on solar fuel physics and chemistry at Empa in Switzerland.
- Sciex Fellow Krisztina Schrantz to present her project "NIPSH - Nanobio-Interfaces for Photocatalytic Solar Hydrogen" at the Sciex Programme Closing Conference 25 September 2015 in Zürich. Out of 545 Sciex projects, only 21 were selected for this presentation.
- Empa scientist and MHV Fellow Rita Toth featured in SNF Horizonte, the Swiss National Science Foundation official bulletin (see pages 46-47) for new solar cells.
- Call for Research Papers on Solar Fuels for Journal of Materials Research Focus Issue organised by NREL, Empa, University of Hawaii, and U.S. DOE.
- Empa's solar fuel activities (moth eyes again!) highlighted in the 2014 Annual Report of the ETH Council (2014 Geschäftsbericht des ETH-Rats über den ETH-Bereich).
- Congratulations! PhD student Mr. Roche Walliser passes PhD thesis exam at University of Basel with work on Liesegang patterns for photo-electrodes.
- Congratulations! Empa PhD student Mr. Florent Boudoire passes PhD thesis exam at University of Basel with "summa cum laude".
- Congratulations! iThemba Labs PhD student Mr. Itani Given Madiba wins Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship for research project with Empa.
- 10 April 2015, 17:30 - 20:00 at Jillian's http://www.jillianssf.com in San Francisco Metreon, 175 4th St, San Francisco, CA 94103, next to Moscone Convention Center: U.S. DOE PEC Working Group Meeting with international guests.
- 12-13 March 2015, International Conference on Photonics and Solar Water Splitting (PSWS-2015) at St. Teresa's College, Ernakulam, Kerala, India.
- 04 March 2015, 10:00-12:00 Auditorium at iThemba Labs, Faure, South Africa: Empa's Artur Braun speaks on artificial photosynthesis and on ceramic proton conductor membranes
- 02 March 2015, 13:00-14:00 Lecture Theatre at the Civil Engineering Building (ABC Building) on the CPUT Bellville Campus, South Africa: Empa's Artur Braun delivers talk on solar water splitting in photoelectrochemical cells.
- MRS Spring Meeting 2015 in San Francisco: University of Pretoria, ERTL Center Korea and German Aerospace Center Stuttgart organise symposium on electrocatalysis.
- 17 February 2015, 15:00-16:00 Auditorium VE 102: Empa/Uni Basel PhD student Florent Boudoire presenting his thesis talk "Self-Assembled Photonic Mesostructures for Water Splitting Photoanodes".
- February - March 2015: University of Pretoria PhD Candidate Mrs. Kelebogile Maabong to carry out research project (SSAJRP) on solar fuel physics and chemistry at Empa in Switzerland.
- Nanoscience pioneer Lionel Vayssieres to present Symposium X talk at 2015 MRS Spring Meeting & Exhibition on solution based low cost renewable energy materials.
- Artur Braun, Hongyou Fan, Ken Haenen, Jeremy Theil and Lia Stanciu to chair 2015 MRS Spring Meeting in San Francisco.
- UPDATE: December 2014: De Gruyter announces: Empa paper on artificial photosynthesis ranks now 3 among the 20 most downloaded papers in "Green": Artificial Photosynthesis for Solar Fuels – an Evolving Research Field within AMPEA, a Joint Programme of the European Energy Research Alliance.
- UPDATE: December 2014: Elsevier: "Empa paper on artificial photosynthesis & x-ray spectroscopy now the 19th most downloaded papers in Journal of Electron Spectroscopy and Related Phenomena in Summer 2014": Between photocatalysis and photosynthesis: Synchrotron spectroscopy methods on molecules and materials for solar hydrogen generation.
- March 2015: New Springer textbook on artificial photosynthesis contains two chapters from Empa researchers Artur Braun, Debajeet. K. Bora and Krisztina Gajda-Schrantz.
- 12 December 2014: New concept paper on artificial photosynthesis with green chemistry by Empa, Eawag, University of Hawaii and GIST in Korea - just online and already in the top 25% altmetric list by public attention.
- 3-5 December 2014: BESSY-II Users Meeting in Berlin Adlershof.
- 1-2 December 2014: Tender X-ray Workshop at BESSY-II, Berlin Adlershof.
- 17 November 2014: Florent Boudoire, Artur Braun, Edwin Constable, Jakob Heier and Rita Toth honoured in Washington D.C. as "Foreign Policy Top 100 Global Leading Thinkers".
- 9-12 October 2014: 3rd Ertl Symposium on Surface Analysis and Dynamics at Harnack-Haus in Dahlem, Berlin, Germany.
- 15-17 October 2014: 1st Gerischer-Kolb Symposium on Electrochemical Surface Science at Harnack-Haus in Dahlem, Berlin, Germany.
- October 2014: Dr. Mmantsae Diale of University of Pretoria visiting Empa for research work on solar energy, electrocatalysis and photoelectrochemical water splitting.
- September 2014: Prof. Emil Roduner of University of Pretoria publishes textbook: "Nanoscopic Materials : Size-Dependent Phenomena and Growth Principles"
- September 2014: Uni Basel/Empa paper on photonic light trapping using moth eye concept makes it into the top 3% of impact factor >15 journal and in the top 5% of all articles ever tracked by Altmetric.
- September 2014: De Gruyter announces: Empa paper on artificial photosynthesis ranks 5 among the 20 most downloaded papers in "Green": Artificial Photosynthesis for Solar Fuels – an Evolving Research Field within AMPEA, a Joint Programme of the European Energy Research Alliance.
- September 2014: Elsevier: "Empa paper on artificial photosynthesis & x-ray spectroscopy among the 25 most downloaded papers in Journal of Electron Spectroscopy and Related Phenomena in Summer 2014": Between photocatalysis and photosynthesis: Synchrotron spectroscopy methods on molecules and materials for solar hydrogen generation.
- August 2014: MRS360online reports: South Africa’s Science and Technology is Advanced
- University of Pretoria's Prof. E. Rohwer going to visit Empa Switzerland for SSAJRP project in August 2014
- University of Pretoria's Prof. E. Roduner organizes fuel cell symposium with ERTL Center at MRS Spring Meeting 2015
- Bio-inspired artificial photosynthesis: Empa/Uni Basel PhD student making summer headlines with moth eyes
- Swiss-South Africa Nano Workshop at iTHEMBA LABS in April 2014
- Swiss-South Africa Nano Workshop at iTHEMBA LABS: A cow bell for Cape Town
- Artificial Photosynthesis in Europe - AMPEA Publication 2013
Projects
Nanoscience and nanotechnology for green tech and renewable energy.
Funding by the Swiss National Science Fundation and the National Research Foundation of South Africa.
A research project of the Swiss South Africa Joint Research Program.
The aim of this project is to study original photoelectrode films, with a controlled structure grown using bottom-up approaches, which exhibit light-trapping properties.
Self-assembly to pattern thin films: Liesegang rings, dewetting and electrohydrodynamic destabilization.
Solar hydrogen thanks to artificial photosynthesis and hydrogen generator development.
See here the Meeting Report in Synchrotron Radiation News: Meeting Report: Exploratory Workshop on Soft X-rays and Electrochemical Energy Storage and Converters.
A joint solar water splitting project with University of Hawaii
Defect study on photoanode surface and interface using impedance spectroscopy, operando XPS and ab-initio calculations.
Basic Research Equipment for Photocatalysis and Photoelectrochemistry
Project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, project 121306: Basic Research Equipment for Photocatalysis and Photoelectrochemistry.
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
Project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, project 132126: In-situ photoelectrochemical and resonant x-ray and electron spectroscopy studies.
Watch this poster on the ever first observation of two hole states in the valence band of iron oxide during with NEXAFS spectroscopy during photoelectrochemical water splitting: a true operando synchrotron experiment:
In situ NEXAFS on solar water splitting.
Swiss-South Korean Joint Research Project on PEC
Project funded by the Korean-Swiss Science and Technology Programme: XPS and PES Spectroscopy on Solar Water Splitting Photoelectrodes.
Solar hydrogen integrated nano electrolyzer
Project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation: Solar Hydrogen Integrated Nano Electrolysis.
Watch the concept on Youtube: SHINE - Solar Hydrogen Integrated Nano Electrolysis.
