Lotsch Group

Our group members, Lucas Balzat and Sebastian Bette, joined the 34th annual meeting of the Crystallographic Society in Lübeck 🎉
They presented on phase transitions in lithium-tin based ion conductors and novel nickel-magnesium coordination polymers, investigated with in situ diffraction techniques 🧪

Fare Well Party for @stecanossa.bsky.social in Stuttgart with @kenichiendo.bsky.social and @lotschgroup.bsky.social. Another good reason to visit Korea but you will be missed!!

We had the great pleasure of hosting our former Post-Doc, Vincent Lau, now an Assistant Professor in Taiwan!

We had the pleasure of hosting Prof. Katherine Mirica (Dartmouth College, USA). She shared insights into her work by giving a talk on “Smart Membranes for Simultaneous Chemical Sensing, Filtration, and Detoxification” and engaged in lively discussions on sensing applications of MOFs and COFs.

Four of our PhD students just organized the Max Planck Science Policy Winter School.🏛️ An entire week which brought together 50 young scientists in Berlin to explore where science can have an impact in the political sphere and how it can shape a more resilient future! 🌍

Congrats to them! 🎉

Effect of Stack Pressure on the Microstructure and Ionic Conductivity of the Slurry‐Processed Solid Electrolyte Li7SiPS8 This study unlocks new insights into all-solid-state batteries (ASSBs), revealing how stack pressure, binder content, and particle size influence the performance of slurry-processed tetragonal Li7${\...

💡Bigger particles & less binder boost ionic conductivity!⚡Binder shapes conductivity more than particle size, and over‑compression damages performance. Smart microstructure design is needed for better batteries! 🔋

We are very happy to announce our fresh paper on Cu-dendrites grown from CuAl-Layered Double Hydroxides for CO2 Reduction. The Cu-Al ratio in the LDHs allows us to tune the Cu-dendrite morphology and thereby the CO2 reduction product distribution:
pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

@jiyeonkim.bsky.social

Winners of the 2026 Elisabeth Bauser Fellowship

Congratulations to Jiyeon on receiving the Elisabeth-Bauser Fellowship 🥳🎉
We are excited for all the great research coming up!
www.fkf.mpg.de/8907326/2026...

Our work is being featured in 10 Years of @pubs.acs.org ACS Energy Letters: 10 Topics that Defined the Decade! 🎉

Check it out ⬇️
pubs.acs.org/page/aelccp/...

We have a plan for the future 🚀
... and we were very happy to share our vision with the Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg Winfried Kretschmann and the Minister of Science, Research, and the Arts for the State of Baden-Württemberg Petra Olschowski during their visit last week - Thank you! 🏛️🤝🧪🇩🇪

New paper alert🚨✨ Our recent work on redox conductivity in COF reminiscent of insulator-semiconductor switching (modulated by both electrical potential and light) behaviour is now published in JACS.✨

Open access paper:
doi.org/10.1021/jacs...

Effect of particle size on the slurry-based processability and conductivity of t-Li7SiPS8 All-solid-state batteries (ASSBs) promise higher energy and power densities and improved safety over lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) by using non-flammable solid electrolytes (SEs), with thiophosphate-ba...

🚀In solid‑state batteries, size matters!
Check out our study where we show that larger particles lead to faster lithium transport in solid electrolyte sheets!⚡

#chemsky #RSC #EESBatteries

Our PhD student Lucas returned from a trip to Japan🎌🗾
He was a part of a delegation of Junior Experts invited by the Japanese Foreign Ministry to meet with Japanese scientists from academia and industry to discuss how next-generation batteries can help to reach future carbon neutrality 🤩👏

We aim for high-level research, so we decided to put ourselves at the highest altitude in Germany - the Zugspitze! 🏔️❄️☃️
This year's group retreat was fully surrounded by snow, but the confinement effect in the mountain successfully induced our red-hot, strong bonds once again 🤝🤝

Bettina and Shun celebrated this year's Nobel prize for MOF with a commemorative symposium in Stockholm🎖️
It was full of interesting behind-the-scenes stories and fruitful discussions for the future development of the field. Cheers again for this amazing, welcoming MOF community!! 🥂🥂

Bettina gave the Remsen Memorial Lecture at Johns Hopkins. A wonderful opportunity to engage with colleagues at JH and the broader scientific community of the ACS Maryland Section. Thanks so much to Professors Thomas Kempa, Tyrel McQueen, and all colleagues for an inspiring day at JH!

Bettina and Julia attended the "EMPOWER Women in MOFs and Beyond 2025" conference in Mexico! Bettina gave a plenary lecture on the charge- and mass transport in COFs, and Julia presented her recent work on the flexibility of the Ti-MOF NTU-9 🥳👏👏

After an inspiring visit to the 14th SolTech Conference 2025 in Bayreuth last month, Amelie, Diego, Martina, and Bugra were filled with energy and new ideas. The future of solar innovation looks bright. ☀️🔧

Ion Diffusion and (Photo)redox Conductivity in a Covalent Organic Framework Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have emerged as promising materials for energy-related applications, where precise control over charge and mass transport is critical, such as in electrocatalysis an...

Check out our new preprint on ion diffusion and (photo)redox conductivity in a COF by @bbrath.bsky.social and Bettina!
doi.org/10.26434/che...
We report the first observation of reversible switching from an insulating to semiconducting regime in COF triggered by both electrical potential and light.

Last month, Julia, Youngseon, and Luca visited the annual meeting of the International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE2025). They had a great time exploring new science and meeting old friends!

Jiyeon is now selected as an Early Career Board member of the IUCr journals! 👩‍🔬👏👏 We are proud of you!!!

Celebrating the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2025 with Omar Yaghi (and Ben Feringa, right as well as Berend Smit, left) at the Solvay Conference in Brussels 😜!

Sigrid just spent some time in Berlin, training as a bullying and conflict counselor—actively combating bullying and promoting a better working environment. Making the lab a safer and open space! ☀️

Yesterday, the FKF-Nanorunners team, including 16 runners from 10 different natios, took part at the AOK-Firmenlauf in Ludwigsburg. They a achieved a respectable 19th rank out of 142 mixed teams. ✨👟🏃

Luca attended the International Conference on Electrolysis 2025 in Freiburg, gaining valuable insights beyond catalyst development and deepening his understanding of the challenges of modern electrolyzer systems

#ICE2025

Shun got a poster prize in the #ISAC-6 ! Congrats! 🥳🎉

On Sept 5–6, Sebastian Bette joined the 2nd ISMMF–2 Workshop (Tohoku Univ., Asst. Prof. Ryojun Toyoda), presenting on the crystal chemistry of carboxylate salts. The event featured international talks and a lecture by Nobel Laureate Ben L. Feringa. 👉 Info: www.tfc.tohoku.ac.jp/junior-resea...

Dynamic breathing behaviour of the titanium-based metal–organic framework NTU-9 upon adsorption of water and organic solvents Understanding the structural response of framework materials to external stimuli has been of great interest. However, little is known about the stimuli responsiveness of titanium-based metal–organic f...

Check out our Chemical Science work led by Julia, showing the dynamic breathing behaviour of the titanium-based MOF NTU-9!
Detailed structural analysis was the key to the findings 🧐

Congratulations Julia on your first paper! 🎉🎊

pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

Structure and Transport Properties in the Pseudobinary Phase System Li4SiS4–Li4SnS4 Thio-lithium superionic conductors (thio-LISICONs) are a family of promising solid electrolyte materials for potential applications in solid-state batteries. The orthorhombic polymorph of the thio-LIS...

Check out our new paper just published together with the Canepa group. 🎉📝

We took a deep dive into the crystal structure of Li4SiS4.🔍 This helped us investigate how mixing silicon with tin in Li4SiS4–Li4SnS4 affects the structure and ionic conductivity. 🧩
Check it out ⬇️
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...