Nanoscience and nanotechnology are still expanding as drivers for new fundamental understanding as well as for addressing societal challenges. As we return to real-life meetings, we can get back to sharing and creating new ideas in a dynamic way. We will ramp up our networking further after the summer break with more regular meetings in our research areas and with the highlight of our annual meeting, the 11th of October, this year with the title “Materials – building the world”. Learning and discussing new research, products, and ideas has every time given a huge boost of energy.
In the Annual Report for 2021, which just arrived from the print shop, you can see how we are developing and read about some highlights of research, education, innovation, and collaboration.
With this edition of the NanoLund newsletter, we wish all of you a happy summer full of recreation,
Maria Messing, Anneli Löfgren and Anders Mikkelsen,
for the leadership of NanoLund |
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We are grateful for valuable donations for equipment to our nanofabrication facility. A donation from the Crafoord Foundation will be used for tools to obtain high-quality films: X-ray diffraction (XRD) for immediate feedback on the atomic scale structure, and plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) for deposition of high-quality material.
Another donation from the Olle Engkvists Stiftelse will be used for a scanning electron microscope (SEM) – a tool that is very important for the characterization of all our materials and devices. The aim of both donations is to contribute to new technologies for a sustainable knowledge society.
The Crafoord Foundation has also awarded grants for scientific research to NanoLundians Martin Hjort, Fredrik Johansson, Jan Knudsen, Vinay Swaminathan, and Jonas Tegenfeldt. |
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For the first time, researchers have succeeded in growing vertically aligned, free-standing metal halide perovskite (MHP) nanowires. This scalable, self-aligned, and lithography-free approach to achieving high-quality free-standing MHP nanowires arrays and heterostructures, offers new possibilities for optoelectronic applications such as solar cells, light-emitting diodes, and X-ray detectors. |
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The risk of exposure to covid-19 virus particles increases the closer you are to a patient, the higher virus levels of the patient, and if ventilation is inadequate.
Measurements of viruses in the hospital air by researchers at NanoLund provide new knowledge on how best to adapt care to reduce the risk of infection. The international guidelines that currently exist in healthcare need revision.
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The first triple-junction photovoltaic nanowires are modeled to have an ideal maximum solar energy harvesting efficiency of 47%. The results pave the way for realizing the next generation of scalable, high-performance, and ultra-high power-to-weight ratio multi-junction, nanowire-based solar cells.
Electron-beam-induced current measurements were used to reveal all subcells simultaneously. Current-voltage characteristics of single nanowires demonstrate almost ideal VOC addition of the subcells, with a measured VOC of up to 2.37 V. Congratulations to the authors Lukas Hrachowina, Yang Chen, Enrique Barrigón Montañés, Reine Wallenberg, and Magnus Borgstrom for these research results towards sustainable energy!
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We all know that when it burns, it smokes. But what do we really know about the contents of that smoke and how it is affected by different fire processes? Not only that, but how do these smoke particles affect the emergency personnel who are first on the scene? Researchers at NanoLund and LTH, in a unique experiment with the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB), have conducted measurements to study this smoke in detail during fires in realistic environments.
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NanoLundian and Assistant professor Sara Blomberg at the Department of Chemical Engineering, Lunds University, was awarded the Swedish Catalysis Society Berzelius Prize at the 19th Nordic Symposium on Catalysis in Esbo stad, Finland.
Sara Blomberg receives the prize for broadening the possibilities to measure processes on the catalytic surface and the gas phase simultaneously. Her research is focused on catalytic processes where she is using in situ and operando X-rays techniques to study the interaction between the catalyst and the reactants on an atomical level. She is designing and studying model systems as well as industrial catalysts and has a particular interest in catalytic processes related to the production of renewables and the conversion of biomass. |
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The Lindau Nobel Laureate meetings are annually hosting an event where young scientists – students, PhD candidates, and post docs – meet with Nobel Laureates. This year, NanoLundian Ofentse Makgae is one of the Swedish delegates participating.
Ofentse Makgae is a researcher at NanoLund and a postdoctoral research fellow in environmental transmission electron microscopy (ETEM) within the national centre for high-resolution electron microscopy (nCHREM) at the Centre for Analysis and Synthesis (CAS).
“What I look forward to the most about this event, is meeting the Nobel Laureates, networking and forging long-lasting relationships with other brilliant young scientists from across the world”, says Ofentse Makgae.
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Friends, collaborators, and associated institutions of NanoLund are all welcome to our Annual Meeting at Scandic Star Hotel in Lund on October 11. The theme is decided: Materials – building the world. Program chairs Maria Messing and Mattias Borg are putting together an exciting program on the topics:
• Quantum materials
• Synthesis and Integration
• Organic and earth-abundant materials
There will also be an update of NanoLund events by director Anders Mikkelsen, presentations of the Seedling projects 2022, and a poster session. NanoLund awards will be presented during the dinner after the meeting. Everything will take place at Scandic Star Hotel in Lund. We hope to see you there!
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