Leidse en Eindhovense scheikundigen hebben na decennia de discussie beëindigd over het juiste model voor de eenvoudigste chemische reactie in heterogene katalyse, die essentieel is voor brandstofcellen. Met behulp van een uniek gekromd platinaoppervlak toonden de Leidse Ludo Juurlink, zijn promovendus Richard van Lent en Michael Gleeson van DIFFER aan welk model de reactie met waterstof correct beschrijft. Ze publiceerden hun bevindingen op 11 januari in het blad Science.
News
January 9th 2019
Can you coat flexible solar cells with a water resistent coating, at the speed of roll to roll processing? In 2013, DIFFER and Fujifilm Research joined forces in an Industrial Partnership Programme to speed up this important step in the production of cheap, flexible solar cells. A dedicated DIFFER group on Atmospheric Plasma Processing of Functional Films was set up that investigated the use of an energetic plasma environment to grow a high quality moisture barrier. With the succesful graduation of the group's three PhD students comes an end to this research line. The knowledge developed in the group will now be transfered to industrial partner Fujifilm Research.
January 3rd 2019
The key to boosting hydrogen storage in metal nanoparticles is understanding the role of defects, conclude physicist Andrea Baldi (Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research DIFFER) and scientists from Delft, Amsterdam and Groningen in Physical Review Letters. Their work resolves a long-standing debate on what are the major factors influencing hydrogen absorption in nanoscale metals, something that could lead to the storage of clean power in hydrogen fuel at industrial capacity.
December 6th 2018
At the COP24 UN Conference on Climate Change in Katowice, ITER's (and former DIFFER colleague) Greg De Temmerman gave a strong overview of the potential of fusion energy and progress at the ITER site.
November 27th 2018
Could replacing failed plasma-facing components in the wall of a fusion reactor ever be as easy as changing a light bulb? That was the ambitious idea behind a collaborative project between CCFE / UKAEA (UK), Sandia National Laboratories (USA) and DIFFER (Netherlands), when the group ran a proof of principle demonstration earlier this year.
