Call for Papers

Please contact the symposium organizers with questions.

Nanoscale phenomena at surfaces and interfaces play an essential role in the performance of many renewable energy harvesting and energy storage devices. Rapid advances in experimental techniques (functional scanning probe microscopy, NMR, X-ray diffraction/scattering, electron microscopy, …) are currently enabling the characterization, understanding, and performance optimization of new next generation energy conversion and energy storage materials. This symposium focuses on these experimental advances, and how they are being used in research fields including photovoltaics, batteries, fuel cells, super-capacitors, as well as piezoelectric and thermoelectric energy harvesting materials.

Our aim is to bring together the scientists who develop and use these techniques to characterize energy conversion and storage materials across different application spaces. The symposium should lead to an exchange of knowledge on the properties of energy-related materials, as well as new characterization techniques. In particular, we hope to stimulate the development and dissemination of new methods for the characterization of nanoscale phenomena in energy-related materials. Such methods might include, for example, in operando studies, correlative and multi-modal microscopies, advances in machine learning and automated experimentation, or new modalities such as time-resolved methods of SPM and advanced modes combining nano-mechanical and potentiometric imaging capabilities. We expect that the interdisciplinary nature of this symposium will attract strong participation from both academia and industry in the multidisciplinary environment of MRS meetings.

Topics will include:

• Local performance of solar cells (organic, inorganic and hybrid materials)
• Time resolved EFM/KPFM imaging of the charge carrier dynamics of energy devices
• PiezoForce Microscopy on piezoelectric materials for mechanical energy harvesting flexible devices
• Advanced Scanning Probe Microscopy Modes (Scanning Microwave Impedance Microscopy, Infrared Microscopy, Scanning Capacitance Microscopy, Conductive and Photoconductive AFM, Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy, ...)
• Novel materials for Li-ion batteries (electrodes, …)
• Novel methods for electrochemical characterization of surfaces (for instance in batteries)
• (Photo)degradation of energy materials and devices (solar cells, lithiation/delithiation processes, etc.)
• Solid State NMR
• X-Ray scattering
• Electron microscopy
• Novel methodologies/processes for the data analysis including advanced statistics and machine learning
• Combined multimodal techniques
• Correlative microscopy, image/signal processing, and colocalisation tools

Invited Speakers (tentative):

• Harald Ade (North Carolina State University, USA)
• Andrea Centrone (National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA)
• Raphaele Clement (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)
• David Ginger (University of Washington, USA)
• Naomi Ginsberg (University of California, Berkeley, USA)
• Georg Gramse (Johannes Kepler Universität Linz, Austria)
• Benjamin Grevin (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France)
• Ilka Hermes (Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung, Germany)
• Hyo Jung Kim (Pusan National University, Republic of Korea)
• Y. Shirley Meng (The University of Chicago, USA)
• Ellen Moons (Karlstads Universitet, Sweden)
• Hidenori Nakayama (Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, Japan)
• Erin Ratcliff (University of Arizona, USA)
• Manjunatha Reddy (University of Lille, France)
• Michael Toney (University of Colorado Boulder, USA)
• Stefan Weber (Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Germany)
• Peter Zalar (TNO, Netherlands)

Symposium Organizers