During the visit to Aveiro for the YCN event, Justyna and Damian presented our research to the group of Lab of Solid State Ionics and Energy Conversion. It has been a nice occasion to interact with a group working in quite similar topics. 

We have been very fortunate to have receive funding for our project submitted to the m-era.net 2022 call! The project: Defective metal oxides as the next generation of lead-free piezoelectrics for ultrasonic actuators (DEMETRA) has been submitted in collaboration with strong partners: DTU (Vincenzo Esposito - coordinator), CTS Ferroperm - former Meggit, a Danish producer of piezoelectric components, and Federal University of ABC (UFABC) from Brazil! Within this consortium we will push the limits of electrostrictive materials based on ceria to a new level.

​Short abstract for the public (from the m-era.net results document):
Electromechanical smart materials are like muscles that change their size and exert forces under electrical stimuli. They are in sensors and medical devices and are essential for future technologies. Despite their importance, the best-performing material is an old technology: lead-based piezoelectrics, which is highly toxic. A new class of materials, non-classical electrostrictors, have been discovered. These outperform lead-based piezoelectrics and are biocompatible and inexpensive. However, we still need to assess them for "fast" ultrasounds. Objectives: #1: Understand how nonclassical electrostrictors work at the atomic level. #2: Optimise their properties in the ultrasound to prove their industrial competitiveness. Potential applications: Target applications are echo-scan, lab-on-chip, adaptive lenses and ultrasonic manipulators. Impact and potential benefits: We will impact society through industrial innovation and environmental sustainability

Our lastest article, the outcome of Karolina Cysewska's work within the First TEAM project entitled: "Evaluation of electrosynthesized reduced graphene oxide – Ni-, Fe-, Co-based (oxy)hydroxide catalysts toward oxygen evolution reaction" has been accepted to Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology.
This is the last article in a series concerning the research of electrochemically synthesized layered double hydroxides (LDH). These are very versatile materials showing exceptional oxygen evolution performance.

On 21-22 February we (Karolina, Piotr and myself) have attended, for the first time in-place, to an annual KMM-VIN meeting to network within the Energy and Biomaterials field. It has been a nice event where a lot of discussions took place. Looking forward to its outcomes and to the next year!

Some time ago we have studied in details the effects of ball milling on the oxygen evolution reaction performance on the case of MnCo2O4 spinel, with which we have been working extensively. As we are still relatively new to the OER field, we have carefully analyzed the effects of carbon content, Nafion content and powder milling on the resulting properties.
​
The publication has been accepted to Applied Surface Science:
"Tailoring a low-energy ball milled MnCo2O4 spinel catalyst to boost oxygen evolution reaction performance"
Sylwia Pawłowska, Krystian Lankauf, Patryk Błaszczak, Jakub Karczewski, Karolina Górnicka, Grzegorz Cempura, Piotr Jasiński, Sebastian Molin
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0169433223003963

This work has been carried out within the FirstTEAM project by Foundation of Polish Science.​

Thanks to the IDUB - Research University Excellence Initiative within the framework of Einsteinum call, this and next week we are hosting Prof. Marco Actis Grande from Politecnico di Torino, Italy. Prof. Grande is an expert in powder metallurgy and additive manufacturing of metal components. We are looking forward to extend our knowledge and cooperation with PoliTo within the area of porous alloys development.
Today, Prof. Grande gave a seminar to our group today, where also our PhD/PostDocs presented their work.
On Monday, 6th February at 12.00 in NE140 WETI B (building 42) , an open seminar "Stainless steels powders obtained through atomizing: modelling of the process and characterization of the final product" will take place.

In December 2022 we have been granted a project within the internal call for hydrogen related projects, funded by the Research University - Excellence Initiative subsidy. 
In collaboration between the Faculty of Chemistry (Dr. Łukasz Gaweł), Faculty of Applied Physics and Mathematics (Prof. Jacek Ryl) and Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics (PI - Sebastian Molin), we have submitted a proposal for development of a prototype anion exchange membrane electrolyser stack.

The project is a part of three connected projects within the H2Tech LAB initiative that aim at developing novel Gdańsk Tech hydrogen related activities and testing infrastructure.

You can read a press realease (EN version) from the Gdańsk Tech website:
​pg.edu.pl/en/news/2023-01/h2tech-lab-laboratory-hydrogen-technologies-interfaculty-laboratory-gdansk-tech

In case of any questions, please contact us. We are open for any research/scientific/commercial collaborations.

We finish the 2022 with another publication for the First TEAM project published. We have further studied the manganese-cobalt oxide spinels by partial substitution by iron. Great results including work from Solaris (XAS - M. Zając) and from collaboration with AGH (TEM - G. Cempura, FTIR - M. Bik, M. Sitarz).
The combination of the synchrotron XAS and laboratory FTIR spectroscopy methods are very promising for further studies. 

Slowly, we get to know the complex properties of the spinels more and more.

The link to the full version of the article (active for 50 days from 22nd Dec 2022):  
https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1gIDi1HxM4zR1J