News - Finden

Finden intern Abigail Eddie receives Highly Commended from The Faraday Institution for #FUSE2023 poster

Congratulations to Finden intern Abigail Eddie who received a Highly Commended from The Faraday Institution for her #FUSE2023 poster.

She completed an internship under the supervision of our Senior Scientist Dr Steve Price, Dr Beth Johnston and Dr Innes McClelland from the University of Sheffield.

Abigail’s FutureCat project focused on chemical imaging of battery cathode materials. She took part in adapting scripts in Python to automate the analysis of the X-Ray Diffraction-Computed Tomography (XRD-CT) data of an LiNiO2 cathode. The programs written proved to reliably and efficiently extract crystallographic information and physical parameters from the sample. Reducing the time spent on data processing will allow faster research and development into new battery materials.

View the fully accessible, digital version of the poster.

A multi-scale study of 3D printed Co-Al2O3 catalyst monoliths versus spheres

Finden’s latest work working with VITO, National Institute of Chemistry Slovenija and UCL Chemistry has been published in a new paper by Clément Jacquot “A multi-scale study of 3D printed Co-Al2O3 catalyst monoliths versus spheres” in Chemical Engineering Journal Advances (open access).

This study demonstrates the characteristics of two model packing configurations: 3D printed (3DP) catalyst monoliths on the one hand, and their conventional counterparts, packed beds of spheres, on the other. Cobalt deposited on alumina is selected as a convenient model system for this work, due to its wide spread use in many catalytic reactions. 3DP constructs were produced from alumina powder impregnated with cobalt nitrate while the alumina spheres were directly impregnated with the same cobalt nitrate precursor. The form of the catalyst, the impregnation process, as well as the thermal history, were found to have a significant effect on the resulting cobalt phases. Probing the catalyst bodies in situ by XRD-CT indicated that the level of dispersion of identified Co phases (Co3O4 reduced to CoO) across the support is maintained under reduction conditions. The packed bed of spheres exhibits a non-uniform distribution of cobalt phases, including a core-shell morphology with an average crystallite size of 10–14 nm across the sphere, while the 3DP monolith exhibits a uniform distribution of cobalt phases with an average crystallite size of 5–12 nm upon reduction from Co3O4 to CoO. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling was carried out to develop digital twins and assess the effect of the geometry of both configurations on the pressure drop and velocity profiles. Finally, the activity of both Cobalt-based catalyst geometries was assessed in terms of their conversion, selectivity and turn over frequencies under model multiphase (selective oxidation) reaction conditions, which showed that the desired 3D printed monolithic geometries can offer distinct advantages to the reactor design.

To read the full paper visit https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ceja.2023.100538

Royal Society 2023 Analytical Science Horizon Sir George Stokes Prize

We are thrilled to receive this Sir George Stokes Prize prize for the development and application of X-ray diffraction computed tomography to image and identify structure-activity relationships within functional materials and devices. Thank you so much to Royal Society of Chemistry and all our collaborators. The prize recognised the work Finden has done in advancements of X-ray diffraction computed tomography (XRD-CT) and related chemical imaging methods like pair distribution function computed tomography (PDF-CT) or multimodal-CT through collaborations with academic and industrial partners.

Professor Andrew Beale said on winning, “We hope that eventually, these techniques will move from particle accelerators into the laboratory, and ultimately into the medical field. There, they have the potential to bring about improvements in the health sector, as well as the performance of materials.”

Read more about Finden’s work:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2022.231589

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smtd.202100512

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41524-021-00542-4

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-07046-8

Finden featured in ESRF – The European Synchrotron Highlights

Finden Ltd has been selected to feature in the ESRF – The European Synchrotron 2022 Highlights. Former Finden employee Dr. Dorota Matras’s work using synchrotron X-ray diffraction computed tomography (XRD-CT) can be found on page 148. Many thanks to the ESRF ID31 team, Marta Mirolo, Isaac Martens and Jakub Drnec, for their help with this experiment!

The research work was a collaboration with UCL Chemistry. Read more about our work at ESRF – The European Synchrotron during 2022 at https://esrf.fr/Apache_files/Highlights/2022/#/page/0.

You can read Dr. Dorota Matras’s full paper, “Emerging chemical heterogeneities in a commercial 18650 NCA Li-ion battery during early cycling revealed by synchrotron X-ray diffraction tomography” at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2022.231589/

STORMING EU project award

Image: STORMING EU project

We are proud to announce Finden Ltd have been awarded a grant to take part in research on structured unconventional reactors for CO2-free methane catalytic cracking as part of the STORMING EU project.

STORMING EU will develop breakthrough and innovative structured reactors heated using renewable electricity, to convert fossil and renewable CH4 into CO2-free H2 and highly valuable carbon nanomaterials for battery applications.

Finden are performing X-ray characterisation of the catalysts used for methane to nanostructures and hydrogen formation. This will involve spectroscopy and scattering on powders as well as X-ray imaging of structured reactors. Finden will be supporting a new PhD student Antonia Bobitan in research on this project.

More information about the STORMING EU project can be found at https://storming-project.eu

Prioritising the industry customer

Director Dr. Simon Jacques gave an interview to Joe McEntee for the CERN Courier in September on collaboration between Europe’s large-scale research facilities and industry. Simon spoke about the our science-as-a-service business model and new plans to diversify beyond conventional X-ray analysis techniques and synchrotron science.

Find the article at https://cerncourier.com/a/prioritising-the-industry-customer/

FUSE summer internship

The FUSE summer internship was a 8 week placement for talented and enthusiastic undergraduate students to work with battery researchers from Faraday Institution industrial and university partners. It was an opportunity to further develop their skills and inspire them to continue a career in research in the battery sector!

We were very impressed with our intern Kenan (https://futurecat.ac.uk/faraday-undergraduate-summer-experience-fuse-2022-welcome/ and https://www.faraday.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/KenanGnonhoueDokononFUSE2022FutureCat_vf.pdf) and delighted that his poster was highly commended by the judging panel.

SNI 2022 conference

Image copyright: HZB / photographer M. Setzpfandt

Our Director Dr Simon Jacques gave a talk in the Industry, Innovation and Transfer microsymposium at the SNI 2022 conference in Berlin. The conference was attended by over 400 researchers from across Europe who met to discuss their work insynchrotron radiation, neutrons and ion beams.

More information about the event can be found at https://www.helmholtz-berlin.de/events/sni-2022/index_en.html

Big Science Business Forum

Our Director Dr Simon Jacques attended the Big Science Business Forum in Granada a business oriented conference which congregates the main European research infrastructures, focused on technology and with the aim to be the main meeting point between research infrastructures and industry. Simon presented at a training session related to analytical services, opportunities and experience.

More information about the event can be found at https://www.bsbf2020.org

Prof. Andrew Beale receives 2022 Materials Chemistry Division mid-career Award: Peter Day Award!

We are proud to announce our Chief Scientific Officer Prof. Andrew Beale has won a Royal Society of Chemistry award! He is the winner of the 2022 Materials Chemistry Division mid-career Award: Peter Day Award. Andrew was given the award for his work in the development of novel methodologies using bright light sources to identify active species in catalysis and energy storage.

“Still after all of these years it is exciting to be one of the first pairs of eyes to see something for the first time.” ~ Prof. Andrew Beale

Read about it at https://www.rsc.org/prizes-funding/prizes/2022-winners/professor-andrew-beale/

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