The PSI Laboratory for Electrochemistry studies almost all aspects of electrochemical energy conversion to advance its scientific and technological understanding for sustainable energy systems.
We aim to be a global leader in advancing electrochemical energy conversion, driving innovation for a sustainable, clean energy future through excellence in research, collaboration, and education.
We advance electrochemical science and technology by driving innovation in sustainable energy conversion systems and developing advanced materials. By bridging the gap between fundamental research and practical, real-world applications, we ensure that our discoveries lead to tangible impacts. We foster strong, collaborative partnerships across disciplines and industries, leveraging collective expertise to accelerate progress. Additionally, we are committed to empowering the next generation of leaders through comprehensive education and training programs. Ultimately, our efforts are directed towards creating effective, scalable solutions that address the pressing global challenges of energy sustainability.
Our approach is centered on research excellence, utilizing state-of-the-art facilities and groundbreaking methods to drive fundamental discoveries and advancements in electrochemical energy technologies. We emphasize collaborative synergy, fostering strong partnerships across academia, industry, and laboratory groups to facilitate knowledge transfer and accelerate innovation. Our focus is on developing next-generation materials and solutions that meet critical challenges in sustainable energy conversion, ensuring enhanced durability and performance. We are equally committed to education and impact, equipping future leaders through comprehensive training programs, active community engagement, and a strong presence in the scientific community. Together, these pillars reflect our unwavering commitment to sustainability, innovation, and leadership in electrochemistry.
Career and Education within the Laboratory for Electrochemistry
Lab News & Scientific Highlights
Understanding the Interplay between Artificial SEI and Electrolyte Additives in Enhancing Silicon Electrode Performance for Li-Ion Batteries
Maintaining a stable solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) is crucial for Li-ion battery safety, especially with high-capacity anode containing silicon. Therefore, our study explored long-term cycling of Si electrodes with artificial alucone-based SEI, deposited by molecular layer deposition (MLD) in combination with a fluoroethylene carbonate (FEC) electrolyte additive. MLD of flexible Li-ion permeable artificial SEI coatings onto electrode resulted in improved capacity, enhanced Si electrode cycle life and capacity retention.
Best practices for harnessing operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy in electrocatalytic water splitting studies
X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) has found applications in a range of fields including materials, physics, chemistry, biology and earth science. XAS can probe the local electronic and geometric structure, such as the average oxidation state, coordination environment and interatomic distances, surrounding an element of interest. Thus, XAS is a valuable tool to inform catalyst design by tracking catalyst evolution under operating conditions, for example, via providing dynamic snapshots of the essential information.
Converting the CHF3 greenhouse gas into LiF coating for high-voltage cathode materials toward high-energy density Li-ion batteries
The instability and the fading of high voltage cathode materials above 4.3 V remains a major challenge for the next generation of high energy density Li-ion batteries. Here, we present a facile, environmentally friendly, cost effective and scalable method to address this problem by uniformly fluorinating the surface of cathode materials with CHF3, a mild fluorinating agent but a potent greenhouse gas. CHF3 is successfully transformed into ~2 nm LiF homogenous layer covering the surface of layered-oxide cathode materials.
Publications
-
Melčák M, Durďáková T-M, Tvrdý Š, Šercl J, Lee JM, Boillat P, et al.
Neutron imaging and molecular simulation of systems from methane and p-xylene
Scientific Reports. 2025; 15: 1284 (12 pp.). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-85093-6
DORA PSI -
Aegerter D, Fabbri E, Borlaf M, Yüzbasi NS, Diklić N, Clark AH, et al.
Delving into Fe-content effects on surface reconstruction of Ba0.50Sr0.50Co1−xFexO3−δ for the oxygen evolution reaction
Journal of Materials Chemistry A. 2024; 12(9): 5156-5169. https://doi.org/10.1039/d3ta06156f
DORA PSI -
Aeppli D, Gartmann J, Schneider R, Hack E, Kretschmer S, Nguyen TTD, et al.
Safe and reliable laser ablation assisted disassembly methodology for cylindrical battery cells for post-mortem analysis
Journal of Energy Storage. 2024; 83: 110571 (12 pp.). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.est.2024.110571
DORA PSI -
Appel C, Aliyah K, Lazaridis T, Prehal C, Ammann M, Xu L, et al.
Operando scanning small-/wide-angle X-ray scattering for polymer electrolyte fuel cells: investigation of catalyst layer saturation and membrane hydration- capabilities and challenges
ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. 2024; 16: 25938-25952. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.3c11173
DORA PSI -
Barros Á, Aranzabe E, Artetxe B, Duburg JC, Gubler L, Gutiérrez-Zorrilla JM, et al.
Polyoxometalate-based symmetric redox flow batteries: performance in mild aqueous media
ACS Applied Energy Materials. 2024; 7(9): 3729-3739. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.4c00085
DORA PSI