Energy

Nuclear energy is set to make crewed space stations on the Moon a reality soon – what sounds like a distant future is currently being researched at FRM II. Aerospace engineer Julius Mercz is developing a reactor concept for the Moon as part of his doctoral thesis, a project that is also funded by the European Space Agency (ESA). We spoke with him about the background of the project.

Lea Westphal of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) is the lead author of a new study that provides the most detailed, temperature-dependent picture of ethylene carbonate (EC) to date. EC is a solvent used in the electrolytes of lithium-ion batteries.

In ‘defect engineering’, defects are purposely created in the atomic lattice to change material properties. An interdisciplinary research team led by Dr Yu-Te Chan and Dr Cristina Grosu from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has detected crystal defects at the FRM II’s NEPOMUC positron source that make batteries more efficient.

In the future, liquid molten salts could contribute to more efficient, climate-friendly energy generation. At FRM II, PhD student Liliana Quintero Zambrano is researching the use of liquid salt as a cooling and heat transfer medium in new reactor designs. The project is funded by TÜV NORD.

A team of scientists based at the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ) has taken an important step toward developing safer and more efficient batteries. Their research reveals how sodium ions diffuse and migrate through a promising class of solid materials known as NASICONs. The findings, published in the journal Materials Chemistry A, could support the future development of sodium-based solid-state batteries for applications ranging from electric vehicles to grid-scale energy storage.

How can lithium-ion batteries become more efficient? A research team involving Dr Senyshyn from the MLZ has measured a key degradation process in battery cathodes that will enable even more efficient lithium-ion batteries.

To advance the development of fusion energy reactors, a new joint research project is being launched at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). The project will investigate the properties of innovative high-temperature superconductors (HTS), which are used to control the extremely hot plasma in the reactor, under extreme conditions. In addition to TUM’s Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Research Neutron Source (FRM II), the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) and the company THEVA are also participating in the HTS4Fusion project, which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space (BMFTR).

Lithium-oxygen batteries could one day supersede the widely used lithium-ion batteries because, in theory, their energy density is 10 times higher. However, the technology of lithium-oxygen batteries is not yet ripe for commercial exploitation. Neutrons shed light on possible electrolytes and cathode materials.