Latest News of the Oschatz group

For the first time in its history, Jena was the heart of the porous material world! The German Zeolite Conference gathered experts from all different aspects of porous materials and brought together reknown scientists from all over the world. 

Our new binational project "OILSANDSBATT" synergistically combines the expertises of material science and battery research by exploring the potential of oil sand, an abundant Canadian ressource, as promising feedstock for the fabrication of battery electrode materials.

Within our new project we seek to utilize local ressources such as lignin to produce high-performance Sodium-ion batteries based on a local value chain. The thuringian project team is versatile and includes the Fraunhofer IKTS, FSU Jena as well as Mercer (lignin manufacturer).

With the beginning of the new year, we warmly welcome our new PostDoc Jian who will develop Lignin-based batteries! Jian Peng received his PhD from the Chinese Academy of Science. He has a strong background in the multifaceted characterization of Solid-State-Batteries and will greatly supplement our group!

After almost 3 years at FSU Jena, Martin finally gave his public inaugural lecture entitled "Mit Chemie zu neuen Materialien für die Energiewende". Chaired by the dean of the faculty, it was a great evening, both scientifically and socially!

This Friday, Martin had the pleasure to explore the beauty of chemistry with ca. 100 children. Supported by Uli, Rudi and Franz, they conducted colourful and smoky experiments and thereby astonished the crowd. It was a nice event and cool to spark some future students!

After a very fruitful collaboration, we could finally publish a joint paper in ChemistryEurope that illuminates the altered photophysics of a dye (photosensitizer) upon confinement and space restriction.

We had the pleasure to welcome Dr. Majd Al-Naji (BasCat/TU Berlin), a well known colleague who presented his progress in the field of sustainable catalysis using biomolecules as well as controlled polymer degradation. Thanks for your inspiring talk Majd!

Zehui joins by the aid of a Chinese Government Scholarship. She will work on new carbon-based materials for electrochemical energy storage systems and the investigation of mechanisms at carbon-electrolyte interfaces. Good luck and a good start for you Zehui! 

The Oschatz group participated in the International Sodium Battery Symposium SBS4 at Fraunhofer IKTS in Dresden, which was co-organized by Martin. Ulrich, Sofiia and Johannes presented their work on carbon electrode materials for sodium ion batteries.

Kai studied chemistry at the Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg and has a strong background in electrochemical energy applications and catalysis that he can provide to our group.

Desirée joins the Nexus programme from the Carl Zeiss foundation as a junior research group leader. Her project ReAlBatt got elected by the Carl Zeiss foundation for funding starting in January 2024.