Topical focus

The electronic structure and chemical state of an interface/surface is determined by the surrounding environment, which in last term rules its properties. These properties, as chemical composition and chemical state, are of main importance because they determine the performance of the electrode under relevant working conditions. However, there are many difficulties, ascribed to the complexity of these systems, that hinder the total understanding of the electrochemical processes.

Synchrotron X-ray based techniques have emerged as an important tool for the characterization, being non-destructive methods that provide relevant information of a material of interest in an element specific way.

Unfortunately, these techniques present sometimes a lot of challenges to overcome when applied to the study of electrochemical systems under operando conditions. They are hardly compatible with liquids especially in the soft X-ray regime and when using electrons. However, in the last years there have been a lot of efforts to use these state-of-theart techniques for different electrochemical studies with a huge potential impact in our society, i.e. for H generation/storage, CO valorization, batteries etc.

This symposium will focus on in situ/operando techniques developed for the investigation of electrochemical energy materials under relevant working conditions using X-ray synchrotron-based techniques. 

Invited speakers

• Lucia Aballe, ALBA Synchrotron
• Rosa Arrigo, University of Salford
• María Escudero-Escribano, ICREA and Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2)
• Benedikt Lassalle, Synchrotron SOLEIL
• M Rosa Palacín Peiró, Institut de Ciencia de Materials de Barcelona, ICMAB-CSIC
• Peter Strasser, Technical University of Berlin (TU)