Our Speakers - Oskar Paris
Biogram
Prof. Oskar Paris is a materials physicist who obtained his PhD in Solid State Physics in 1996 at the University of Vienna, Austria. Following postdoctoral positions at ETH Zurich in Switzerland and Montanuniversität Leoben in Austria, he was a group leader at the Department of Biomaterials at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam, Germany. Since 2009, he has been a full professor and the head of the Institute of Physics at Montanuniversität Leoben. Oskar Paris is internationally recognized for his experimental work on functional nanomaterials using synchrotron radiation X-rays and neutrons at large-scale facilities, including metallic-, ceramic-, and carbon-based nanomaterials, as well as biological and biomimetic systems. His recent scientific focus is on nanoporous materials, where he has contributed to the fundamental understanding and quantitative description of the physics of fluids in nanopore confinement, and also to the field of adsorption-induced deformation. He has pioneered in-situ and operando X-ray techniques for tracking the adsorption of ions in supercapacitors and related electrochemical systems.
Abstract
Understanding confinement and ion desolvation in electrically charged carbon nanopores
The fundamental mechanisms of ion storage in electrical double layers (EDL) in nanoporous materials have been investigated extensively in the last two decades. The understanding and controlling of confinement effects to improve the performance of supercapacitors and related electrochemical systems have seen considerable advances. Two approaches are considered to be groundbreaking in this respect: First, the (atomistic) modelling and simulation of EDL systems have enormously progressed in recent years. Second, the development of suitable in-situ and operando experimental platforms has allowed to study details of ion distribution at the molecular scale of whole EDL devices “at work”, i.e., during their charging and discharging. Examples include NMR spectroscopy with its unique ion-specific sensitivity, as well as X-ray absorption and X-ray scattering techniques. The latter, when using synchrotron radiation, has the unique potential of high position resolution from the sub-nanometer to the device scale, and high time resolution enabling ion dynamics to be assessed. This tutorial will provide an overview of our current understanding of confinement and ion desolvation with the help of in-situ and operando experiments, and how molecular simulations can help to interpret and understand the experimental results.