International workshop on continuum modeling in energy applications @ DIFFER

On Thursday January 26, 2023 DIFFER was host of an international workshop on continuum modeling in energy applications. The workshop was organized by Anja Bieberle, group leader on Electrochemical Materials and Interfaces and head of the Solar Fuels department. 

Building a network of scientists 
In total, more than forty participants from all over Europe came to DIFFER in Eindhoven. The program of the workshop covered different aspects of continuum modeling, discussed the bridge to other scales of modeling and focused on different applications. Three keynote speakers and ten contributing speakers gave an excellent overview of the research activities in Europe. A stimulating panel discussion finalized the workshop. 

Sensitivity analyses 
Bart van den Boorn, PhD student from Anja Bieberle’s research group, was one of the speakers. Bart explains that the process of water splitting occurs in two half-reactions: the oxygen and the hydrogen evolution reaction. The oxygen evolution reaction is the most difficult and therefore also the most interesting to investigate. Bart: ”In our study, we use a microkinetic continuum model to find the limiting process at the interface where the oxygen evolution reaction occurs. I presented a sensitivity analysis which allowed me to find out which of the starting parameters to our model are important.” According to Bart it was very interesting to see and discuss other approaches to sensitivity analyses with other researchers in the workshop.

COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) as a sponsor
The workshop was organized within the European research program COST Action 18234. This program focuses on bridging the knowledge gaps between different theoretical methods and computer codes in order to facilitate the discovery of novel materials for energy conversion. 

Building new collaborations
Anja Bieberle: “We were glad that so many researchers came to DIFFER to speak and discuss about continuum modeling. We learned how diverse this field is and are delighted that the community is continuously growing. In the spirit of a COST Action program, the workshop gave me and colleague researchers the chance to extend our network and to build new collaborations. It was an excellent science and networking event!”