Topical Symposium 1
The United Nations (UN) has defined 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to pave the way for a future that is worth living for everyone. This mindset is emphasized at ICMCTF with the tagline ‘Surface Engineering: Shaping Future Materials.’ While sustainability aspects are more than welcome in all contributions from academic progress to industrial processes, the focused Topical Symposium on Sustainable Surface Engineering manifests the fact that state-of-the-art research and development in surface engineering must also account for sustainability. Individual topical sessions on batteries and hydrogen applications, catalysis and energy conversion, as well as circular strategies for surface engineering, are in line with SDG 7 ‘Affordable and Clean Energy,’ SDG 12 ‘Responsible Consumption and Production,’ as well as SDG 13 ‘Climate Action.’
TS1. Coatings for Batteries and Hydrogen Applications
The future of energy is driven by the overall goal to provide green and sustainable energy for all industrial sectors. All mobile and stationary applications will be affected by these changes. The achievement of these goals relies on green and sustainable energy generation, but also on the ability to store this energy. Once electricity is generated with regenerative technologies it can be stored in batteries or transported using hydrogen as a carrier to its final destination and transferred to electricity again when needed. Electrochemical cells are key elements in hydrogen production and storage of generated electricity in batteries. Surface coatings and surface functionalization in these cells are providing key properties to enable and drive necessary reactions. Electrode surfaces must provide high electric conductivities and withstand harsh electrochemically corrosive environments. On the other hand, membrane assemblies must be functionalized and act as carriers for catalysts. In solid-state batteries, coatings are needed for the interface design between electrodes and electrolytes. Moreover, coating processes are needed for the application of active materials. Future technical and economic success in hydrogen generation and electricity storage is mainly driven by the developments related to these electrochemical cells. This topical session focuses on coatings and surface functionalization in electrochemical cells used in hydrogen applications, e.g. electrolysis, fuel cells, and in electricity storage, e.g. Li-batteries, solid state batteries, and flow batteries.
TS1 Invited Speakers:
- Verena Lukassek, The Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Center, Germany, “Investigation Methods for Coatings on Metallic Bipolar Plates for Fuel Cells and Electrolysis”