Automated and integrated electrode generation and characterization

• Subject Area: Process Engineering, Technical Chemistry
• Term: Funded in 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 555890911

Electrochemical functional materials are central to electrochemical applications and are produced using both gas and liquid phase synthesis. However, the suitability of electrochemical functional materials can only be finally evaluated in a functional environment, i.e. in an electrode as a half or full cell. An electrode is a layer in which the electrocatalyst is applied – either in the form of a dispersion/ink/paste/slurry containing the active material together with binder and conductivity additives, or as a liquid precursor on a substrate –, dried, and, if necessary, thermally, mechanically or chemically post-treated. In addition to the active material itself additional properties play a decisive role in the electrochemical properties and stability of the electrode. These are, for instance, the material distribution and the pore structure, as well as interface properties that govern both cohesion in the electrode layer and adhesion of the electrode layer to the substrate. The parameter space to be investigated is huge and even small changes in the electrode layer influence the performance and stability of the electrochemical functional materials in operation. Three challenges can be derived from this: i) Electrodes must be manufactured in a highly reproducible manner and decoupled from the "human factor" so that real effects are not lost in experimental noise, or experimental noise is not misinterpreted. ii) Electrodes must be produced with sufficient throughput to capture the parameter space and work out the decisive parameters. In the case of manually conducted experiments, the absolute sample throughput is limited to a maximum of 2-3 electrodes/day, especially if replicate approaches are also produced. iii) Integrated data management is required to enable the correlation of material properties and the microstructure of the electrode with performance data. The proposed system for automated and integrated electrode generation and characterization as a research instrument should be able to automatically and reproducibly formulate materials, process them into electrode layers, and thermally and mechanically post-treat the layers produced. The electrode characterization should cover both the layer structure and the electrochemical layer properties. In addition to the data and sample management integrated into the system itself, the entire system is integrated into a higher-level electronic lab notebook (eLab.FTW) that enables linking with data collected outside the system. Taken together, this makes it possible to find correlations between material and electrode structure properties and electrochemical performance data and to understand the underlying process-structure and material-structure-performance relationships.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: Automatisierte und Integrierte Elektrodenherstellung und -charakterisierung
• Instrumentation Group: 2180 Maschinen für Oberflächenbehandlung (Elektropolieren, Galvanisieren, Lackieren, Sandstrahlen)
• Applicant Institution: Universität Duisburg-Essen
• Leader: Professorin Dr.-Ing. Doris Segets