Prof. Jinghua Guo from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) visited Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech & Nano-bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (SINANO) on April 15, 2015.

Prof. Guo firstly gave a brief introduction on LBNL and then delivered a lecture on In Situ/operando soft X-ray spectroscopy characterization of interfacial phenomena in energy materials and devices. It has been found that the microstructure and composition of materials as well as the microstructure evolution process have a great influence on performances in a variety of fields, e.g., energy conversion, energy storage, catalysis. However, it is difficult to reveal the real mechanism. In situ X-ray spectra characterization technique offers an opportunity to uncover the phase conversion, the chemical environment change of elements and other very important information in real time. Prof. Guo introduced how to use this powerful in situ X-ray spectra characterization technique to investigate the real electrochemical mechanism during batteries’ operation. Prof. Guo’s group designed an electrochemical liquid cell and successfully revealed the electrochemical reaction process in real time. The results indicate that in situ X-ray spectra characterization technique can help researchers well understand the real reaction mechanism.

Prof. Guo visited some labs at SINANO and he was very impressed by the advanced facilities here. He showed great interest in building collaboration with some groups in SINANO.