LRC - Laboratory of Radiochemistry
The Laboratory of Radiochemistry (LRC) focuses on fundamental research and on education in the field of radiochemistry. The topics studied within LRC cover a wide and diverse range of radiochemical research, including studies on the chemistry of heavy elements, harvesting exotic radionuclides from irradiated accelerator components for use in fundamental research, development of innovative radiopharmaceuticals and studying the chemical behaviour of radionuclides in liquid metals proposed as target material or coolant in future nuclear facilities.
Current News from LRC
Welcome Vlad
Zobnin Vladislav is a new Phd student, who has recently joined the group of Isotope and Target Chemistry. He will work on the “PASCAL” project, under the supervision of Dr. Jörg Neuhausen.
Congratulation to Noemi and Michael!
Noemi Cerboni and Michae Hofstetter managed to keep up the international scientific prestige of LRS at the Jahrestagung der Fachgruppe Nuklearchemie 2022, wining the Best Poster Award with: “Investigation of Targets Prepared by the Coupled Reduction Reaction”, Noemi, and the Second Best Poster Award with: “Lanthanide Isotopes in DU Penetrators”, Michael, respectively.
30th Conference of the International Nuclear Target Development Society
The Isotope and Target Chemistry group of the Paul Scherrer Institut had the pleasure to organize and host the 30th Conference of the International Nuclear Target Development Society (INTDS 2022) at PSI from 25th to 30th September 2022.
The conference was a great success! 80 participants, representing scientific institutions of 14 different countries and 4 continents, met in person, discussed and presented their newest results on target preparation methods, advances in target characterization, production of targets for medical applications, gas targets, stripper films, high-power target technology and much more. We are happy to emphasise the relative large number of students, 15, participating to the event.
Special thanks to the Local Organizing Committee: D. Schumann (Chair), Z. Talip, E.A. Maugeri, R. Dressler, K. Daniela, A. Blattmann, M. Veicht, N. Cerboni
Mario PhD defence
LRC is happy to congratulate Veicht Mario Aaron, one of our most promising student, for the successful defence of his PhD Thesis, 30th of September, 2022, at PSI Auditorium lecture hall.
Congratulation Georg!
All LRC members are proud of Tiebel Georg, who won the Best Poster Presentation Award at the Swiss Chemical Society Fall Meeting 2022, 8 September 2020. Congratulation Georg, great job!
Welcome Đorđe
We are happy to welcome Dr Đorđe Cvjetinović.
Đorđe will be working on the SINCHRON project as part of his postdoctoral fellowship.
Congratulation Noemi and Mario !
PSI: Doktorandentag des Departements Nukleare Energie und Sicherheit 2022.
The Department of Nuclear Energy and Safety (NES) of the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI) held its annual PhD Day. The PhD students presented their research work to a jury, which awarded the best presentations in each of the various categories with a prize donated by the Nuklearforum Schweiz.
This year Noemi Cerboni and Mario Veicht, first and fourth year PhD students, respectively, of LRC won this prestigious award.
Welcome Noemi
Welcome to our new PhD Student Noemi Cerboni. She' ll be working with us for the next four (?) years on "Development of electrochemical methods for the production of thin film Lanthanides"
Congratulations Mario!
Our PhD student Mario Veicht has recently contributed to the success of "EPFL Xplore's space rover, Argos" taking third place in this year’s European Rover Challenge, held in Poland on 10–12 September. The team also won best performance in both the science and probing tasks.
Welcome Aboard!
We are happy to welcome Lu Liu in our Laboratory.
Dr. Lu Liu is a Postdoctoral Researcher, who has recently joined the group of Isotope and Target Chemistry. She will work on the “PASCAL” project, under the supervision of Dr. Jörg Neuhausen.
LRC and BluAct explore innovative filter material
Fission products from the PSI-SINQ gas-jet facility, as operated by LRC, were used to reveal the separation of relevant radionuclides from radioactively contaminated water. The tests were conducted using a novel innovative filter material made of a blend of milk whey and active charcoal on cellulose. This material has been developed by the ETHZ spin-off BluAct Technologies GmbH.
The importance of this project was recently highlithed in ETSON/news
Weissbuch Radiochemie Schweiz
In December 2020, the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT) published its white book on radiochemical education in Switzerland. The report was authored under the lead of Prof. Dr. Roger Alberto (University of Zurich), Dr. Mario Burgener (Spiez Laboratory), and Prof. em. Dr. Heinz W. Gäggeler (University of Bern/Paul Scherrer Institute) and comprises contributions from many experts on the topic from various institutions throughout Switzerland. The white book highlights the imminent loss of experts in the field of radiochemistry and provides solutions to counteract this development.
Radiochemistry at ETH Zurich
As of December 10, 2020, the ETH Zurich appointed PSI’s Prof. Dr. Patrick Steinegger as assistant professor of radiochemistry (tenure track). Thus, the ETH domain took first counter measures against the imminent loss of radiochemical expertise in Switzerland, emphasized in the “Weissbuch Radiochemie Schweiz” by the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT). Furthermore, the December issue of CHIMIA (Swiss Chemical Society) invited to present the diverse radiochemical activities throughout the country.
CHIMIA: Radiochemistry in Switzerland
The December issue of CHIMIA of the Swiss Chemical Society (SCS) focused on the radiochemical activities throughout Switzerland. Scientists of the Laboratory of Radiochemistry contributed with a number of articles ranging from topics of fundamental sciences to applied research, thereby reflecting on the diverse projects carried out in our laboratory.
Young Scientist Prize 2020 of the Swiss Neutron Science Society
The Swiss Neutron Science Society as one of the representatives of the neutron scatterers in Switzerland honors each year young scientist in recognition of a notable scientific achievement in the form of a PhD thesis or to a nominee with an exceptional track record in neutron science.
In 2020 one of the prizes sponsored by SwissNeutronics was awarded to Jiri Ulrich (LRC/PSI) for his doctoral thesis on “High precision nuclear data of Mn-53 for astrophysics and geosciences”.
Cancer medicine using PSI’s neutron source
At the neutron source SINQ, PSI researchers are producing special radionuclides that aid in the development of new and more effectively targeted cancer therapies. In this they collaborate closely with the clinics in the surrounding area.
Material from PSI helps to check inconsistencies in the Big Bang theory
Shortly after the Big Bang, radioactive Beryllium-7 atoms were formed, which today, throughout the universe, they have long since decayed. A sample of beryllium-7 artificially produced at PSI has now helped researchers to better understand the first minutes of the universe.