The Emmy-Noether-Group “Pulsed Metallurgy of Metallic Thin Films” announces the successful PhD defense of Tobias Neuhauser held on November 29, 2021. He explored „The effect of the heating rate on the phase selection in Al/Ni multilayers“ through a smart combination of nanocalorimetry and time-resolved X-ray diffraction. Tobias  was supervised by Dr.-Ing. Karsten Woll.

(photo: private)

Jean-Baptiste Molin won the “Best Poster Award” in the physics session of the Association Francaise de Cristallographie, AFC2021. He presented his PhD study on 3D-µLaue diffraction for characterization of dislocation structures and stress fields in micro bending cantilevers. His main achievement is establishing a non-destructive in situ 3D technique to investigate a specific microstructure with a resolution better 1 µm³, and monitor the mechanical behaviour of this microstructure at the same time. Félicitation!

After successful continuation review, the second four-and-a-half-year funding period of the Research Training Group GRK 2218 "Simulation of mechano-electro-thermal processes in lithium-ion batteries" (SiMET, www.simet.kit.edu), funded by the German Research Foundation, started on October 1st, 2021.

In the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of 06.07.2021, an article by Lukas Weber "Prosit Baum" appeared under the heading "Technik & Motor" about the latest book from the IAM-WBM "Klimafester Baum? Biomechanische Anpassung der Baumwurzel an den Trockenstress“ (Climate-proof tree? Biomechanical adaptation of the tree root to drought stress) at the same time as the press release of the KIT.

Find also a video at Baden-TV (german only)

Verena Becker successfully defended her PhD "Modellierung der Mechanik und der effektiven Transporteigenschaften von partikulären Kathoden sowie deren Einfluss auf die elektrochemische Performance von Lithium-Ionen-Batterien (Modeling the mechanics and effective transport properties of particulate cathodes and their influence on the electrochemical performance of lithium-ion batteries)". She did her work in the group of Marc Kamlah as a fellow of the Research Training Group GRK 2218 "Simulation of mechano-electro-thermal processes in lithium-ion batteries" (SiMET). Warm Congratulations! (Photo: private)

Oleg Birkholz successfully defended his dissertation thesis "Modeling transport properties and electrochemical performance of hierarchically structured lithium-ion battery cathodes using resistor networks and mathematical half-cell models". He did this work in Marc Kamlah's group as part of the research project "Materials development of hierarchically structured composite materials for electrochemical energy storage" (HiKoMat) funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BmWi). We wish all the best for the future! (Photo: private)

We recently acquired a ZEISS Merlin, a high performance field emission scanning electron microscope. This is one of the first pieces of equipment to arrive at the institute as part of the ongoing effort to build a state-of-the-art nano/micromechanics testing facility.

The HiKoMat project, in which among others the IAM-MMI was involved with excellent contributions, has decisively contributed to a detailed understanding of the process-structure-property relationships of hierarchically structured composite materials for electrochemical energy storage.

The German Research Foundation (DFG) continues funding the Collaborative Research Center/Transregio (TRR) 188, “Damage in metal forming”.

The TRR 188 aims for a mechanism-based understanding and control of damage nucleation and growth in advanced high strength materials and is located at several research institutes.