Data Science

Kaspar Dällenbach, Scientist at the Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry (LAC) at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) was granted the Ambizione Grant 2020 with his project “Particulate air pollution sources in low-income megacities (PRESSING)”.

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges humanity is facing. It requires an approach, in which competences and capacities in research are combined across Switzerland to develop solutions for a transformation of our society towards net zero CO₂ emissions.

The Lithium conducting electrolyte is a critical component of Li-ion batteries, as it has an important impact on performance and its durability, in particular in case of extreme environmental conditions. At low temperatures, a partial solidification can occur, while high temperatures can promote the degradation of the electrolyte. Using time-of-flight (ToF) neutron radiography, the possibility of imaging such changes in a fully non-invasive manner was demonstrated for the first time.

Alexander Muroyama, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Electrochemistry Laboratory (LEC) at the Paul Scherrer Institute has successfully applied for the Ambizione Grant 2020 with his project “A novel process for electrochemical direct-air capture of CO₂”.

Patrik Winiger, Research Grant Advisor and Project Manager at ETH Zurich, successfully applied for the Ambizione Grant 2020 with the project “Macromolecular Aerosols in the Cryosphere from the Arctic to the Alps – MACrAA”. The idea was developed together with the Laboratory for Atmospheric Chemistry (LAC) at PSI. The LAC is a global leader in aerosol analytics and source identification. They own and operate a unique laboratory infrastructure with various instruments and multiple aerosol simulation chambers available for researchers.

With its Energy Strategy 2050 Switzerland aims – beside other goals – to promote the use of domestic renewable energy and to develop the electricity power grid, which plays a decisive role in the upgrading of the system of electricity power supply. A lot of research needs to be done to achieve these ambitious goals. An important research project in this area is ReMaP and its status quo was presented at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI on 28 September.

Diesel oxidation catalysts mitigate toxic emissions in heavy duty vehicles but they age during operation due to deposition of chemical elements and structural changes in the active Platinum group metals. Here, vehicle aged catalysts have been characterised in detail to better understand the catalyst deterioration. Such understanding have been applied in the attempts to replicate the aging in the lab.