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Group picture inside the NCD-SWEET experimental hall. From left to right, Albert Queraltó and Elzbieta Pach (ICMAB-CSIC), Eduardo Solano – beamline scientist at ALBA -, Jordi Aguilar (ICMAB-CSIC) and Teresa Puig, researcher from the ICMAB-CSIC.
Cerdanyola del Vallès (Barcelona, Spain), 7th March 2022. Advancing research in strategic areas requires overcoming important scientific challenges that require unconventional research tools that are difficult to implement in laboratories or industrial facilities.
Synchrotron light is one of these tools, and its application is crucial to drive progress and increase the competitiveness of clean energy technologies.
In particular, superconducting tapes are materials of great interest in the energy sector, due to their excellent electrical properties, allowing the transport and generation of energy in a much more efficient way, but their high cost makes their entry to market quite difficult.
To gain knowledge of these materials, and to study their properties and fabrication, the study of processes that generate innovation opportunities in their manufacturing process is necessary. Specifically, these superconducting tapes would benefit from a better adaptation of the current synchrotron beamlines to their specific needs by means of having the appropriate equipment, boosting their development and increasing their competitiveness.
In this context, the CSIC PTI+ TransEner, funded by the European NextGeneration EU funds and the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, is developing a test bench with tools, equipment, methodologies, study protocols and measurement units to design manufacturing processes of industrial interest, more competitive in terms of cost and performance, and of relevant importance for green energy applications.
The Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), one of the research centers participating in this initiative, is implementing a platform for the in situ growth study of a new low-cost ultrafast manufacturing process of superconducting tapes. During the first week of March 2022 the team in charge of this study, from the Superconducting Materials and Large Scale Nanostructures (SUMAN) group, is already at the ALBA synchrotron carrying out the first experiments at the NCD-SWEET beamline.
The test bench developed between ICMAB and ALBA could become a very useful tool for a wide range of situations related to materials for energy and, therefore, will be attractive for several research groups from CSIC and from other research centers, as well as for superconducting tapes manufacturing industries.
At the left, the ICMAB-CSIC team at the NCD-SWEET Control hutch: Albert Queraltó, Elzbieta Pach, Jordi Aguilar and Teresa Puig. At the right, the night ICMAB team: Dani Sanchez - a collaborator from U. Girona-, Diana García, Teresa Puig and Lavinia Saltarelli.
With the collaboration of Fundación Española para la Ciencia y la Tecnología. The ALBA Synchrotron is part of the of the Unidades de Cultura Científica y de la Innovación (UCC+i) of the FECYT and has received support through the FCT-20-15798 project.
