Prof. Marcus Rohnke

Justus Liebig University Giessen, Center for Materials Research, Germany
Marcus Rohnke studied chemistry at Hanover University and graduated in 1999 with a diploma thesis in the field of solid-state electrochemistry. Within his PhD thesis at Justus Liebig (JLU) University Giessen he focused on the interaction of low temperature plasmas and oxygen ion conductors. During his PhD, he spent several research stays at Imperial College in London in the group of Prof. John Kilner and learned SIMS from scratch on a huge Atomika quadrupole machine. After a short Postdoc stay with Prof. Tatsuya Kawada in the materials science department at Tohoku University (Sendai, Japan) he took over in 2005 a permanent position as research officer at JLU Giessen. Here he built up a SIMS laboratory at the Institute for Physical Chemistry and is heading the laboratory since more than 17 years. In 2023 he was a visiting professor at the University of Catania. Marcus research work is dedicated to reactions and diffusion in materials and at materials interfaces. This covers a broad field from bone to battery materials research. Actually, Marcus is senior research officer and adjunct professor for physical chemistry at JLU Giessen. He is author and coauthor of more than 120 publications in per reviewed journals, two patents and one book chapter.

Talk title: characterisation of sodium ion batteries - from post-mortem to operando analysis
Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have been at the forefront of energy storage technology since the early 1990s due to their relatively high energy density (260 Whkg−1), reasonable cost ($153/kWh), and long lifespan.[1]However, the high demand, lack of raw material availability, poor ecological, political and working conditions in the mining countries require new battery concepts. Despite their lower energy density (~150 Whkg−1) compared to LIBs, sodium ion batteries (SIBs) appear to be an interesting alternative, especially for non-portable applications where weight is secondary. SIBs could be used for stationary storage of excess energy from renewable sources such as wind or solar power. Moreover sodium is the 6th most abundant element on earth and is more evenly distributed throughout the globe than lithium.