With its large research facilities, such as a synchrotron, an X-ray free electron laser and a neutron spallation source, the Paul Scherrer Institut is the Swiss hub for operando and in situ studies of energy materials. Significant auxillary infrastructure (for example reaction cells, mass spectrometers, GCs, etc.) and expertise has been built up that allows studying materials undergoing reaction coupled simultaneously when possible with monitoring its activity or selectivity. This information is crucial to extract information on the active site or the deactivation mechanism. The Center for Operando Spectroscopy Studies (COSS) operates and has expertise in a variety of operando and in situ techniques including XAS, XES, IR, XPS, UV-vis and Raman spectroscopies, as well as XRD and SAXS).
The information obtained from these techniques can help to optimize or design new functional materials such as (electro)catalysts or to optimize catalytic processes.
COSS is built around the two beamlines SuperXAS and Debye at the Swiss Light Source (SLS). Further infrastructure like ancillary techniques to x-ray-based methods are available in the Applied Catalysis and Spectroscopy (ACS) group. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy under near ambient conditions is available at the In situ Spectroscopy beamline (ISS) at SLS.
Do you want to learn more on how we can help you or facilitate your research with operando spectroscopy?