10 4 / 2022 // LEOPOLDINA / NEWS

Battery research : First Greve Prize for Leopoldina member Jürgen Janek and Kerstin Volz

The two Greve Prize winners Kerstin Volz and Jürgen Janek at the award ceremony on 17 November . The President of the Senate of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg / Germany , First Mayor Peter Tschentscher , had invited to the ceremony at the Hamburg City Hall .

Image : David Ausserhofer | Leopoldina

Kerstin Volz and Jürgen Janek ML have been jointly awarded the first Leopoldina Greve Prize . This year the prize is awarded in recognition of outstanding achievements in the field of “ Scientific Foundations of a Sustainable Energy Supply ”. The physicist Kerstin Volz from Philipps University Marburg / Germany and the chemist Jürgen Janek from the Justus Liebig University of Gießen / Germany have been working closely together for many years in the field of scientific foundations of high-performance batteries .

You have both been researching high-performance batteries for many years . What attracted you to this field ?

Jürgen Janek : The field of research into electrochemistry was virtually “ dead ” at the beginning of the 1990s . It was thought to be finished , but this was not the case – particularly in relation to the electrochemistry of solid materials . I researched materials for fuel cells , which went against the trend at the time . A key question for me was always how to keep electrochemical cells stable over a long period . Many materials “ suffer ” during operation because chemical side reactions take place continuously . One of the aims of my research is to get to grips with this , particularly now with the questions about batteries . Kerstin Volz : I have always found it ex- citing to understand the atomic structure of matter . Electron microscopy is a technique that allows you to do this and then study interesting materials such as batteries . The battery consists of many materials that collide and form interfaces . To understand how a battery works you need to know how it is structured . This is only possible however if you really dare to look inside and map individual atoms .

How do a professor of solid-state physics and a professor of solid-state electrochemistry get together ? Volz : Since I set up my working group more than ten years ago we have both met up at joint events in materials sciences