EMRS Strasbourg - Symposium G: Great talks excellently organised by Tobias Kraus, Wim Deferme, Monika Rai, Esther Garcia-Tunon, Jang-Ung Park, Shweta Saxena Agarwale.

Overcoming efficiency and cost barriers for large-area quantum dot photovoltaics through stable ink engineering - Nature Energy The instability of quantum dot inks hinders the scaling up of colloidal quantum dot electronics. Now, Shi and team stabilize the inks with an iodine-rich environment in a weakly coordinating solvent, ...

Collaborator Guozheng Shi et al. in @NatureEnergyJnl: "Overcoming #efficiency and cost barriers for large-area #quantum #dot #photovoltaics through stable #ink engineering":

Nat Energy 10, 592–604 (2025).

doi.org/10.1038/s415...

A warm welcome to two new Master students: Vitus Flamensbeck and Yuhao Zhou.

Congratulations to Zerui Li for successfully defending his PhD thesis about „#Operando Research of #Degradation Processes of Green-Solvent based #Organic #Solar Cells”

Engineering Conjugated Bridges in TPE-BT-Based Donor–Acceptor Molecules for Optimized Resistive Random Access Memory Four donor–acceptor (D-A) type organic small molecules, namely, 4,7-bis(4-(1,2,2-triphenylvinyl)phenyl)benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole(TPE-BT), 4,7-bis((4-(1,2,2-triphenylvinyl)phenyl)ethynyl)benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole(TPE-ynl-BT), 4,7-bis(5-(4-(1,2,2-triphenylvinyl)phenyl)thiophen-2-yl)benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole (TPE-Th-BT), and 4,7-bis((5-(4-(1,2,2-triphenylvinyl)phenyl)thiophen-2yl)ethynyl)benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole(TPE-Th-ynl-BT), each incorporating unique conjugated bridges, are designed, synthesized, and integrated into resistive random access memory (RRAM) devices. Current–voltage (I–V) measurements indicate that the TPE-BT, TPE-ynl-BT and TPE-Th-BT based devices exhibit write-once-read-many-times (WORM) characteristics, while TPE-Th-ynl-BT based devices show a stable flash-type switching behavior. In comparison to TPE-BT, the memory devices constructed with TPE-ynl-BT, TPE-Th-BT and TPE-Th-ynl-BT, which include additional conjugated bridges, exhibit nonvolatile memory capabilities with reduced threshold voltages, higher ION/IOFF (104:1), enhanced stability, and improved reproducibility. The photophysical, electrochemical analyses, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) results reveal that incorporating conjugated bridges within molecular structures can enhance data storage performance while reducing power consumption. Our findings demonstrate that these conjugated bridges play a crucial role in optimizing electrical memory characteristics and resistive switching behavior. Moreover, the device fabricated with TPE-Th-ynl-BT is effectively applied to logic gate circuits and American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) art function, highlighting its promising potential as a smart sensor within artificial intelligence (AI) networks.

Collaborator Xinwei Liu et al. in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces @ACS_AMI : "Engineering #Conjugated Bridges in #TPE-BT-Based Donor−Acceptor #Molecules for Optimized #Resistive #Random #Access #Memory":

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2025, 17, 19, 28459–28471

doi.org/10.1021/acsa...

Orientation-Driven Chirality Funnels in Chiral Low-Dimensional Lead-Halide Perovskite Heterostructures Chiral hybrid metal-halide perovskites show low-symmetry crystal structures, large Rashba splitting, spin-filtering, and strong chiroptical activity. Circular dichroism and circularly polarized photol...

Collaborator S. Liu et al. in JACS @acsJACS : "Orientation-Driven #Chirality #Funnels in #Chiral Low-Dimensional #Lead-#Halide #Perovskite #Heterostructures":

J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2025, 147, 19, 16681–16693

doi.org/10.1021/jacs...

Understanding the structure and mechanism of Na+ diffusion in NASICON solid-state electrolytes and the effect of Sc- and Al/Y-substitution NASICON (sodium superionic conductor) based ceramics are one of the most promising classes of solid-state electrolytes for all-solid-state batteries. However, the mechanism of sodium ion diffusion is ...

Ivana Pivarníková et al. in Journal of Mater. Chem. A @JMaterChem : "Understanding the #structure and #mechanism of #Na+#diffusion in #NASICON solid-state #electrolytes and the effect of Sc- and Al/Y-substitution":

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2025,13, 14353-14371

doi.org/10.1039/D5TA...

Deutschlandkarte der Verteilung der Exzellenzcluster auf Bundesländer und Universitäten.

Die #Exzellenzcluster stehen fest: Heute hat die Exzellenzkommission 70 Projekte zur Förderung ausgewählt. 45 Cluster werden fortgesetzt, 25 neu eingerichtet. Die Förderung beginnt ab 1. Jan. 2026 für 7 Jahre, die Fördersumme beträgt insg. 539 Mio. €/Jahr. Die Liste: www.dfg.de/resource/blo... 1/3

The latest issue of ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces (@ACS_AMI) is live! On the cover: “#Stable Compressible #Liquids Made of Hierarchical #MOF #Nanocrystals”

Excellent day at solartap.de/events/joint... at BESSY - meeting ITT, industry and HZB colleagues combining solar cell research and synchrotron radiation - many thanks for the great organisation!!

Happy faces of our team at the beamline P03 at #DESY performing in-situ #GIWAXS and #GISAXS during thermal cycling of #solar cells - Christoph, Simon, Xiaojing and Anthony

Despite problems: Happy faces of our team at the beamline P03 at #DESY performing in-situ #GIWAXS during #printing experiments on seed #crystal substrates in combination with #laser #annealing - Tulga, Lixung, Ming and Julie

The latest issue of ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces (@ACS_AMI) is live! On the cover: “#Quality by #Design-Guided Development of #Hydrogel-Forming #Microneedlesfor Transdermal #Delivery of Enfuvirtide”

Fantastic BBQ at DESY roof top during KTH course "Synchrotron Characterization Methods in Fibre and Polymer Technology - Practice". Happy faces and good meal for KTH students, members of sustainable materials group FS-SMA, KTH/FS-SMA/TUM team at P03, and P03 staff!

Tuning the Morphology of Spray-Coated Biohybrid Beta-lactoglobulin:TiBALDh Films with pH for Water-Based and Nanostructured Titania The whey protein beta-lactoglobulin (β-lg) is used as a biotemplate for the water-based synthesis of nanostructured and foam-like titania films based on its variation in supramolecular structure when denatured at different pH values. Acting as a matrix, β-lg is mixed with the water-soluble titania precursor Ti(IV) bis(ammonium lactate)dihydroxide (TiBALDh) to promote biotemplated titania precipitation. Since TiBALDh is in chemical equilibrium with anatase titania nanoparticles and Ti(IV)-lactate complexes, and this equilibrium shifts with varying pH, the influence of the pH value on the final film morphology becomes essential. This work investigates this influence for three pH values: pH 7, pH 5, i.e., close to the isoelectric point of β-lg, and pH 2. Spray coating, a method of industrial relevance, is used to fabricate biohybrid β-lg:TiBALDh foam-like films. The obtained films are calcined to combust biotemplate β-lg and achieve nanostructured titania films. To understand the influence of pH on the film morphology, grazing-incidence small-angle and wide-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS/GIWAXS) and grazing-incidence small-angle neutron scattering (GISANS), in combination with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), are applied to both the biohybrid and biotemplated titania films. With these techniques, information about domain sizes, porosity, and crystal structure is obtained with high statistical significance. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) probes the interaction of TiBALDh and β-lg on the molecular level as a function of pH. The results underline pH as a suitable tool for tuning the morphology in biotemplated titania films.

Julian E. Heger et al. in JACS Au: "Tuning the #Morphology of #Spray-Coated #Biohybrid #Beta-#lactoglobulin: #TiBALDh Films with #pH for Water-Based and #Nanostructured #Titania":

JACS Au 2025, 5, 4, 1894–1902

doi.org/10.1021/jacs...

KTH course "Synchrotron Characterization Methods in Fibre and Polymer Technology - Practice" has started - welcome to the PhD students from Sweden at DESY and PETRA III for an exciting full week of SAXS, WAXS, GISAXS and GIWAXS practical studies and data analysis!

First Night dinner of the Munich and Hamburg group in #Regensburg during the #DPG Spring Meeting of #SKM - digesting the input from the conference

Bavarian welcome dinner in #Regensburg during the #DPG Spring Meeting of #SKM: Meeting Eva Herzig, Alexander Hexemer, Stephan Roth, Sarathlal Koyiloth Vayali and Benedikt Sochor having a joyful time