The winner of the Student Science Award was announced at the 34th MAX IV User Meeting held in early October. User Meeting organizers and a team of three external adjudicators awarded the student submission based upon the criteria: research quality and potential impact. This year’s Student Award recipient is Harald Wallander for his research on characterizing ultra-thin materials during catalytic action.
Designing materials for a circular economy
According to the European Union’s Circular Economy Action Plan, industry can determine up to 80 % of a product’s subsequent environmental impact at the design phase. However, the linear manufacturing pattern offers few incentives to make products more sustainable. The research infrastructure project ReMade@ARI, which deals with innovative materials for key components in various areas such as electronics, packaging or textiles, aims to change this: The goal is to develop new materials with high recyclability and at the same time competitive functionalities. To this end, the institutions involved want to harness the potential of more than 50 analytical research infrastructures throughout Europe. MAX IV is a partner of this consortium.
Unveiling the properties of a versatile 2D material for energy storage and production applications
Researchers from Linköping University and MAX IV have determined the detailed surface atomic arrangement of inherently formed termination species in an important class of two-dimensional materials known as MXene. The results have implications for the use of the material in energy storage and production applications.
A fuel conversion process akin to photosynthesis
Researchers at Linköping University in Sweden are developing a promising new method to selectively convert carbon dioxide and water to various types of fuel. Driving this reaction is solar energy. The recent study, published in ACS Nano, combines the material graphene and the semiconductor cubic silicon carbide in a process which essentially mimics photosynthesis in plants.
Oxygen cycling reveals path to next-gen ferroelectric devices
Research is heating up to achieve greater fundamental understanding of the mechanism of ferroelectricity in hafnia-based materials, a crucial step in the development of next generation devices. New findings from the University of Groningen (RUG) in the journal Science define the key role of oxygen for greater miniaturization potential and structural stability beyond that of standard ferroelectric materials used in low-power memories. Electron microscopy and MAX IV’s NanoMAX beamline have illuminated the nature of polarization in thin films of hafnium zirconium oxide for ferroelectronics.
What doesn’t break you makes you stronger – how to design optimal steels for impact
Your car gets hit by another vehicle, and the steel in its construction is deformed by the impact. The steel isn’t just designed to be strong enough to protect you. It also gets stronger because of the impact. It all has to do with the different arrangements that the atoms inside the steel can assume and under which conditions these so-called phases can exist.
New Eyes on Forest-Based Materials – ForMAX comes online
ForMAX is the 15th beamline to come online at MAX IV. A large part of the research to be conducted at the beamline will promote the development of new materials and speciality chemicals from renewable forest resources. ForMAX is funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation and industrial partners through the Treesearch consortium.
Scientists probe ferroelectric domains in curved free-standing superlattices
By growing superlattices consisting of ferroelectric and non-ferroelectric transition metal oxides and releasing them from their underlying substrates, researchers explore polarization patterns in curved geometries.
Deciphering corrosion resistance of superalloys
To develop longer-lasting metallic materials for harsh operating conditions requires understanding of their surface composition, structure and properties. A Swedish research group investigated the surface chemistry and thickness of the protective native oxide layer of nickel superalloys at MAX IV’s FlexPES beamline.
Exeger investigates the chemistry of liquid-filled energy material
The Swedish solar cell technology company Exeger has recently been to the HIPPIE beamline at MAX IV along with researchers from KTH and Uppsala University. The goal of the visit was to study the electrochemistry of light conversion to energy in a dye-sensitized solar cell. The experimental setup at MAX IV offers a unique possibility to