The Board of the Division is looking forward to numerous nominations for the 2024 Young Scientist Award and a further increase in the proportion of female candidates. This has averaged 30% over the past 5 years.

Deadline: May 1, 2024

Objective
The Division of Electrochemistry of the German Chemical Society (GDCh) usually awards the Young Scientist Award Electrochemistry annually to a young scientist for an outstanding scientific dissertation, thesis or scientific publication.

The price
The award comes with an award certificate and prize money of 1,000 euros donated by BASF. The prize will be awarded during Electrochemistry 2024, which will take place from September 16 to 19, 2024 in Braunschweig. In this context, the award-winning work must be presented in a short lecture. The Division bears the costs for participation in the conference. An expert committee appointed by the Division Board decides on the awarding of the prize.

nomination
Young scientists who have made an important contribution to electrochemistry with their work completed in 2022 or 2023 can be nominated. Nominations can only be submitted by the academic supervisor and include the following documents:

 

• Appreciation of the work by the scientific supervision (max. 3 pages)
• Short version of the work/publication prepared by the nominated person in the context of the particular significance and novelty in comparison to the state of the art in the respective research direction (max. 2 pages)
• CV (including contact details)
• Dissertation, thesis or scientific publication

In the case of a scientific publication, the contributions of the entire authorship must be stated in detail and comprehensibly.

submission
Please send your suggestions in electronic form and summarized in a PDF file to the GDCh Office for the attention of Maike Fries.

The Young Scientist Award donated by BASF SE was   on the occasion of the GDCh Science Forum Chemistry in Leipzig to Dr. Marvin Cronau awarded in recognition of his outstanding dissertation written at the Philipps University of Marburg entitled: “Synthesis, characterization and optimization of new materials for use in high-performance lithium-ion and lithium solid-state batteries”  

"On the one hand, Dr. Cronau investigated the optimization of the energy density of lithium-ion batteries through larger electrode layer thicknesses. Various parameters for the resulting necessary reduction in cell resistance were evaluated. In the second part of his work, which is particularly noteworthy, Dr. Cronau dealt with lithium solid-state batteries . Here he succeeded in uncovering and proving the dependence of the ionic conductivity of sulfide solid electrolytes on the manufacturing pressure of the sample and on the measurement pressure. The previously unknown qualitative differences in the pressure dependence of the ionic conductivity in amorphous and glass-ceramic samples compared to microcrystalline samples is of great importance for the further development of this type of battery. In addition, his findings can contribute to a better comparability of published ionic conductivities. In addition to the excellent scientific results that were incorporated into this extremely clear dissertation with very good graphics, Dr. Cronau also classifies his research for large-scale application."

The Young Scientist Award was   on the occasion of the Electrochemistry 2022 Conference in Berlin to Dr. Matthäus Siebenhofer awarded in recognition of his outstanding dissertation written at the Vienna University of Technology with the title: “Investigating Point Defect Concentrations and Their Impact on Surface Exchange Reaction Rates of Mixed Ionic and Electronic Conductors”.

"Understanding the oxygen exchange reaction on the surface of mixed ionic and electronically conductive oxides such as lanthanum-strontium-cobalt oxide or strontium-titanium oxide is essential for their further development for solid oxide fuel cells, sensors and capacitors. By introducing a new method, in-situ impedance spectroscopy during pulsed Laser deposition, oxide thin films can be examined directly after their deposition. Dr. Siebenhofer was able to demonstrate for the first time that these are initially significantly more exchange active than previously known, but are then subject to rapid degradation due to a cover with sulfur adsorbates. The new experimental approach allowed concentration-independent To determine activation energies for oxygen incorporation and removal. Together with defect chemical model calculations, a mechanism for the oxygen exchange reaction of mixed conductors could be derived and validated. He further impressively demonstrated how the oxygen stoichiometry of the strontium titanium oxide can already be determined by UV light plasma torch is influenced during pulsed laser deposition."

The Young Scientist Award went to Dr. Johannes Ludwig Röckl awarded in honor of his work in the working group of Prof. Dr. Siegfried Waldvogel at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz: "Merging shuttle reactions and paired electrolysis for reversible vicinal dihalogenations".

"Vicinal dibromides and dichlorides are widely used as flame retardants and pesticides, polymers and pharmaceuticals; their efficient production without the use of highly reactive and corrosive halogenating reagents has not been successful so far. Only the skillful combination of electrochemistry and synthesis achieved a breakthrough. The one developed by Mr. Röckl electrochemical reduction of aliphatic polyhalogen compounds with subsequent anodic oxidation of the released halide and its addition to double bonds is a new concept with a wide range of possible applications.With his "E-Shuttle" approach, Mr. Röckl shows how landfill residues of the toxic insecticide lindane are used to produce new valuable products classic energy-intensive and technically complex mining processes can be replaced by the new process. With his work, Mr. Röckl makes an important contribution to sustainable, electricity-based chemistry, which can help to eliminate persistent industrial contamination."