Understanding the behavior of energy-related materials under realistic operating conditions is essential for the rational design of more efficient systems for energy conversion and storage. The chemical composition, oxidation states, and structural evolution at interfaces and in the bulk are all determined by the surrounding environment, which ultimately controls the material's functionality. However, capturing this information during operation remains highly challenging, as the harsh conditions required for many processes—such as high pressures, liquid electrolytes, or reactive gas atmospheres—are often incompatible with traditional analytical methods.
Synchrotron-based X-ray techniques have become powerful, non-destructive tools to address this challenge, offering element-specific insights into electronic structure, oxidation states, and chemical speciation from bulk to surface. Despite their potential, applying these techniques under operando or in situ conditions, particularly in electrochemical or catalytic environments. In recent years, significant progress has been made toward adapting synchrotron methodologies to probe working systems under relevant conditions.
This symposium will highlight recent advances in in situ and operando synchrotron X-ray techniques for the study of energy materials, including electrocatalysts, battery electrodes, and systems for hydrogen production and CO₂ conversion, among other. Emphasis will be placed on both methodological innovations and their application to technologically relevant processes, aiming to bridge the gap between materials characterization and functional understanding under working conditions.
Sponsored by:
- Energy-related processes
- Applications to sustainable and emerging technologies
- Synchrotron X-ray radiation
- In situ / Operando
Montse Casas-Cabanas is the scientific coordinator of the Electrochemical Energy Storage Area and group leader of the Advanced Electrode Materials group at CIC energiGUNE. Her research interests focus on the design of battery materials and the understanding of phenomena that occur in energy storage devices through a multidisciplinary approach, with a focus in crystal chemistry.
She is also author of >75 scientific publications in peer reviewed journals and has been PI of several national and european projects. She has co-authored the FAULTS software for the refinement of X-ray data of crystalline structures with planar defects. She is also actively involved in the MESC+ Erasmus Mundus master course and has recently received the 2021 Young Researcher award ("Group Leader" category) from the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry.
Prof. Zhi Liu received his BSc in Geophysics/Physics from Peking University, and MSc in Electrical Engineering as well as a PhD in Physics from Stanford University. Before joining the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab as a staff scientist, he was a research associate at Stanford University/Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory. Liu is currently the director of Center for Transformative Science and vice provost of ShanghaiTech University. Prof. Liu’s research interest is surface and interface science. Particularly, phenomena at gas-solid interface and liquid-solid interface, and synchrotron/FEL based in-situ characterization techniques and advanced instrumentation development. Liu has published over 300 papers in peer reviewed academic journals. Currently, He is also leading the beamline and endstation construction for X-ray Free Electron Laser projects in China (SXFEL and SHINE).
Laura Simonelli works since 2004 on the investigation of functional materials, with particular focus on the interplay in between the lattice and electronic properties and their correlations with the functional ones. She mainly focused on the study of battery, high Tc superconductors, and environments or health correlated materials. She got the PhD in Material Science in 2007 and she is a group leader (from 4 to 6 members) and responsible of the CLAESS beamline at ALBA synchrotron since 2013. Moreover, since 2022 she is coordinating the battery research at ALBA. In 20 years of research, she collaborated or leaded several research projects, coauthoring around 150 publications in international journals reaching a final H-index 32.
Kelsey Stoerzinger