Date Time
RIES: Contributing to advancement of life and energy sciences through an interdisciplinary approach
Seventy-eight years have passed since the establishment of the Research Institute of Ultrashort Waves in 1943. The seed planted on that day has grown into what is currently known as the Research Institute for Electronic Science (RIES) of Hokkaido University. The institute has blossomed and produced achievements in the creation of knowledge.
The mid-term evaluation conducted by Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) granted RIES the highest grade on a five-point grading scale. In this accomplishment, three key members of RIES joined in the following discussion, reminiscing the institute’s progress, past achievements, and attention shift towards interdisciplinary and sharing their hopes.
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IMAGE: From left to right: Favorites sites of oxygen: map of Rh oxidation, measured by Scanning Photoelectron Microscopy (SPEM); in situ Photoemission Electron Microscopy (PEEM) of catalytic hydrogen oxidation on Rh;. view more
Credit: TU WIen
Metal surfaces play a role as catalysts for many important applications - from fuel cells to the purification of car exhaust gases. However, their behaviour is decisively affected by oxygen atoms incorporated into the surface.
This phenomenon has been known for a long time, but until now it has not been possible to precisely investigate the role of oxygen in complex surfaces point by point in order to understand the chemical background at the atomic level. This has now been achieved at TU Wien in cooperation with a team from the Elettra Synchrotron in Trieste. It became possible to explain why in previous studies partly contradictory results had been obtained: the oxygen atoms are not distributed evenly, but settle down