Material Science: access to European Analytical Facilities
EIC Pathfinder, Transition and Accelerate Beneficiaries

The Material Science service provides a problem-solving approach in the broad field of material characterisation, from nano-technologies to life science.  A dedicated team provides high-quality support throughout the process, including:

• Experimental Design: CERIC skilled professionals will work closely with external users to design an experimental plan tailored to specific needs and objectives.
• Data Collection: One responsible contact person is defined, and a team will perform the experiments and collect the data.
• Data Analysis: CERIC’s team will conduct, in collaboration with users, a thorough data analysis, including metadata and data curation.
• Report: Once the analysis is complete, the scientific/technical team presents a report outlining the findings, observations, and implications.

Beneficiaries with experienced researchers may opt for joint research with CERIC, defining broader long-term co-development projects. The nature of the collaboration and the level of involvement of CERIC will be agreed upon according to the needs and capabilities of the Beneficiaries.

Applications: CERIC capabilities can serve several sectors, such as energy, pharmaceuticals, automotive and aerospace, environmental, food, textiles and plastics. For specific examples of applications by sector please visit: https://www.ceric-eric.eu/industry/sectors-and-solutions/

Service’s time and duration: the service is continuously open, the access time is fast (but it may be longer during the machine shut-down time), while the time to completion of the contract depends on particular agreed requirements and the involved techniques.

Implementation mode: the implementation is usually remote – EIC Beneficiaries send samples that will be processed according to the requested services. Other modes are also available, depending on the client’s wishes. Confidentiality is ensured through specific agreements guaranteeing the customer ownership of results. Open access for non-proprietary research is free of charge, provided the results are made publicly available after an established embargo period.

Hydrogen and battery technologies: development, testing and validation
EIC Pathfinder, Transition and Accelerate Beneficiaries

A full range of advanced analytical techniques – such as electron microscopy, solid-state and in situ/operando NMR, ion beam, neutron and photon-based techniques – is available for several characterisation experiments for the development of materials and systems applied to fuel cells, water electrolysers and batteries. Among them,  CERIC can support the following activities:

• Surface and interface study on heterogeneous catalysis (e.g. for energy conversion by hydrogen fuel cells and electrolysers).
• Study of how properties of catalysts, batteries and fuel cells can vary during operation and analysis of the components evolution.
• Study of electrochemical behaviour of fuel cells during operations.
• Analysis of new materials for Li-ion and Na-Ion (among others) batteries: composition of materials impurities, mixtures of polymorphs.
• Integral or local elemental composition of bulk samples in a non-destructive way especially for hydrogen and boron elements through in-situ or under operando experiments, e.g. fuel cells
• Analysis of the changes of catalysts during chemical reactions
• Analysis of trace elements (ppm, ppb) in the field of catalysis
• Probing new catalysts at atomic level
• Strategic research in the field of new alternated cost-effective catalysts
• Evaluation of efficiency and durability of critical materials using state of the art material research tools
• Benchmarking of new catalysts and bipolar plates
• Evaluation of catalyst poisoning processes and impact

Fuel cell and batteries testing and validation services are offered by CERIC mainly through its Czech Republic partner with a dedicated surface analysis laboratory and the newly established Hydrogen Technology Centre (HTC), as well as through the EC’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) Fuel cell and electrolyser testing laboratory and the battery energy storage testing laboratory. Moreover, through JRC facilities, CERIC supports the developments in Regulation, Codes and Standards through the validation of testing procedures and measurement methodologies for the performance assessment of fuel cells. Among different testing, CERIC offers:

• Evaluation of electrocatalyst´s using operando electrochemical half-cells installed in advanced analytical tools
• Evaluation of electrocatalysts properties in operando electrolyser cells installed in advanced analytical tools
• Single cell testing of WE and FC catalysts and cell components
• Short WE stack stress tests, life time benchmarking
• Testing of low and high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell stacks, components and entire systems for up to 84 kW electrical power in stationary and transport applications.
• Testing of electrolyser cells and high temperature solid oxide cells and stacks in fuel cell and electrolyser mode.
• Analysis of the performance of battery materials and cells by cell cycling and performance evaluation under normal, but varying, environmental operating conditions.
• Micro X-ray computed tomography
• Pre- and post-test battery cell tear-down
• Testing under simulated environmental conditions including temperature, relative ambient humidity (up to 95 %), and vibrations (up to 250 Hz) and shock

The Beneficiaries will be supported by internationally recognized scientist in the testing design, data collection, data analysis. At the end of the collaboration a report will be provided with all the results and findings.

Sectors applications: The services is specifically designed for the innovation needs of the Energy sector. For specific examples of applications please visit:

https://www.ceric-eric.eu/users/battery-research/

https://www.ceric-eric.eu/users/fuel-cells/

Service’s time and duration: The service is continuously open, the time to experiment is short while the time to completion of the contract depends on particular agreed requirements and the techniques involved.

Implementation mode: The implementation is usually remote – EIC Beneficiaries send samples that will be processed according to the requested services. Other modes are also available, depending on the client’s wishes. Confidentiality is ensured through specific agreements guaranteeing the customer ownership of results.

Research and Development Capacity Building
EIC Pathfinder, Transition and Accelerate Beneficiaries

The great benefit of using advanced instrumentation to understand and solve development and innovation challenges is still not well known, as the majority of researchers do not have access to specific instrumentation based on NMR, ion beam, photon and neutron sources.  CERIC offers to all EIC Beneficiaries a service aimed at improving their capacity to solve their innovation challenges using state-of-the-art analysis and characterisation techniques based on these sources. The full list of CERIC techniques available to EIC Beneficiaries can be found at: https://www.ceric-eric.eu/users/labs-and-instruments/

The service is aimed at personnel working in the field of research, development and innovation, in particular professionals involved in the development and characterisation of materials and devices and in the development of new products or new processes. The service is designed in two phases, the second of which is optional.

Phase I (free of charge)
In the first phase, the Beneficiaries can present their R&D characterisation needs to the CERIC Industrial Liaison Office, an initial internal evaluation will be carried out with the participation of CERIC’s international experts in order to analyse the needs and define which techniques and knowledge can provide a better solution to the presented challenge. If necessary, additional information on the challenge will be requested from the Beneficiaries.
An online meeting will then be organised between the experts and the Beneficiaries to share conclusions on the potential use of certain analytical techniques to solve the challenge.

Phase II
During the online meeting of the first phase, the Beneficiaries and CERIC can discuss additional training on specific state-of-the-art techniques and knowledge according to the challenges raised during the first phase or, possibly, other challenges of interest.
Once these needs have been identified, CERIC will design tailor-made training and present the programme to the Beneficiaries to ensure that it meets their needs. The training of professionals will be offered through seminars, webinars and/or workshops according to the specific requests of each Beneficiary and could have online and on-site formats to better accommodate their availability.
Sectors applications: CERIC capabilities can be used to enhance research knowledge and capabilities in  several sectors, such as energy, pharmaceuticals, automotive and aerospace, environmental, food, textiles and plastics.

Service’s time and duration: The service is continuously open (given that machines can undergo to shut-down), while the time to complete trainings depends on the needs expressed by the Beneficiaries, and the availability of the experts and of the instruments in case of on-site trainings. The duration of the capacity building service could then vary form few hours to multiple days.

Implementation mode: The implementation can be online via webinars, videoconferences, or o presential, if on-site trainings on specific techniques are needed.