Understanding material behavior under realistic operating conditions is essential for advancing sustainable energy technologies. This symposium will focus on recent advances in lab-based in situ and operando characterization techniques applied to energy conversion systems spanning across batteries, solar cells, and (photo)electrochemical devices. While relying on shared fundamental processes – governed by material composition, interfaces, defects, and transport of charged particles – these systems are often studied using only discipline-specific methods.
By bringing together researchers from diverse fields within energy conversion, this symposium aims to promote and facilitate cross-disciplinary exchange and to identify shared challenges and innovative solutions. Emphasis will be placed on emerging lab-based techniques that probe composition, structure, optoelectronic properties, and ionic/electronic transport, where studies offering spatial and temporal resolution are
particularly encouraged. These studies are crucial for understanding reaction mechanisms and degradation within complex conversion processes, ultimately enabling the rational design of more efficient and durable energy materials.
- Energy conversion materials in artificial photosynthesis, solar cells, and batteries
- Cross-platform techniques for multiscale analysis
- Correlating structure, composition, and transport properties in real time
- Time-resolved and spatially resolved measurements of reaction mechanisms
- Degradation mechanisms and failure analysis in energy devices
- Method development and instrument integration for lab-based operando studies
Verena Streibel studied Materials Science at the Technical University of Darmstadt (2007-2013). She completed her doctoral studies at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, focusing on in situ X-ray spectroscopy during electrochemical water splitting (2016). For her postdoctoral studies, she joined the SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis at Stanford University (2018-2020), specializing in density functional theory-based microkinetic modeling of heterogeneous catalysis. In 2021, she joined the Walter Schottky Institute of the technical University of Munich, where she has been leading a BMBF Junior Research Group on artificial photosynthesis since 2024.
Verena's research focuses on surface and interface investigations to elucidate dynamic material changes during (photo)electrochemical processes for energy conversion. To this end, she combines (X-ray) spectroscopy methods under reaction conditions with theoretical modeling. With her research group, she develops thin-film photoelectrode materials and couples them to catalyst systems for solar fuels synthesis.
Corina Andronescu received her B.Sc. and M.Sc. from the University Politehnica of Bucharest (Romania) in 2009 and 2011, respectively. Her Ph.D. title she received from the same university in 2014. In 2016 she joined the group of Prof. W. Schuhmann (Ruhr University Bochum, Germany) first as postdoctoral researcher and later as group leader. December 2018, she was appointed Junior Professor at the University of Duisburg-Essen, where she is currently leading the group of Electrochemical Catalysis in the Faculty of Chemistry. Her research interests include development of hybrid electrocatalysts for the CO2 electroreduction reaction, alcohol electrooxidation as well as investigation of electrocatalysts at nanoscale using Scanning Electrochemical Cell Microscopy.
Monica BurrielDoing my BSc/MSc in Physics and PhD in an interdisciplinary program crossing the disciplines like Chemical Engineering, Nanotechnology, and Electrochemistry made me who I am today – a scientist who enjoys the challenge of multifaceted research.
I enjoy doing basic research in order to solve applied tasks. This explains my research interest in fundamental physical chemistry, e.g. oxidation and dissolution of metals and semiconductors, electrocatalysis, and electrochemistry at modified interfaces but also electrochemical engineering, e.g. development and optimization of catalyst layers in fuel cells and water electrolyzes.
Progress in basic research is often a direct outcome of previous achievements in experimental instrumentation. Hence, a significant part of my interest is in the development of new tools, e.g. electrochemical on-line mass spectrometry, gas diffusion electrode approaches, and high-throughput screening methods.
James Durrant is Professor of Photochemistry in the Department of Chemistry, Imperial College London and Ser Cymru Solar Professor, University of Swansea. His research addresses the photochemistry of new materials for solar energy conversion targeting both solar cells (photovoltaics) and solar to fuel (i.e.: artificial photosynthesis. It is based around employing transient optical and optoelectronic techniques to address materials function, and thereby elucidate design principles which enable technological development. His group is currently addressing the development and functional characterisation of organic and perovskite solar cells and photoelectrodes for solar fuel generation. More widely, he leads Imperial's Centre for Processable Electronics, founded the UK�s Solar Fuels Network and led the Welsh government funded S�r Cymru Solar initiative. He has published over 500 research papers and 5 patents, and was recently elected a Fellow of the Royal Society
Marco Favaro is the deputy head of the Institute for Solar Fuels at the Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin (HZB), Germany. After his PhD at the University of Padua (Italy) and Technical University of Munich (Germany), concluded in 2014, he spent two years as a Post-doctoral fellow at the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis in Berkeley, USA, in the group of Dr. Junko Yano. He moved to Germany in 2017 to join the HZB. Here, his research activity focuses on understanding chemical composition/electronic-structural properties/performance interplay in photoelectrocatalysts by coupling operando multimodal spectroelectrochemical investigations with synchrotron-based in situ/operando spectroscopies.
Gertjan KosterThomas LunkenbeinStefan Weber (born 1981) studied Physics at the University of Konstanz. Already as an undergrad student he started to work with an SFM in the group of Prof. Leiderer. For his diploma thesis under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Johannes Boneberg he studied the interaction of gold nanoparticles with pulsed laser light. In 2007, he joined the group of Prof. Butt at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Reaearch (MPI-P), Mainz. During his PhD, he spent six months at Seoul National University, Korea, in the groups of Prof. K. Char and Prof. C. Lee. In 2010 he received a joint doctoral degree from Mainz University and SNU. In 2011 he went to University College Dublin as a Feodor Lynen Fellow (Alexander von Humboldt Foundation) to join Prof. Brian Rodriguez and Prof. Suzi Jarvis. In 2012 he became a group leader in the Physics of Interfaces group in the department of Prof. Hans-Jürgen Butt at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPI-P), Mainz. From 2015 to 2023 he held a junior professor postition in the Physics department of Mainz University. Sind June 2023, he is a permament group leader at the Institute for Photovoltaics at University Stuttgart, where he heads the Nanoscale Microscopy and Characterization group. In 2024, he won an ERC Consolidator grant for the development of a Photovoltaic Microscope that combines nanoscale electrical imaging with high-resolution optical microscopy and ultrafast spectroscopy