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Making trans-Atlantic flights between CWRU
and the University of Ulm in Germany will become routine in the
months ahead for Daniel Scherson of the department of chemistry.
The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany has notified
Scherson that he is being honored with a Humboldt Research Award
for Senior U.S. Scientists.
Humboldt research awards are given to internationally
recognized scholars from all disciplines, who have been nominated
by eminent German scholars. Awardees are invited to carry out
research projects in Germany over six months to one year.
Scherson will collaborate with chemists
in the research lab of Dieter Kolb at the University of Ulm, the
birthplace of physicist Albert Einstein.
A CWRU professor of chemistry, Scherson
will study the quasi-perfect surface of a single crystal facet
of a very small specimen of platinum that has slowly cooled within
minutes of melting and started forming crystals. The experiments
will confirm the degree of perfection of the crystal's facet by
using the specially calibrated scanning tunnel microscope in Kolb's
lab that can focus at the atomic level.
The cooled platinum crystals resemble spherical
balls similar to a golf ball; but instead of having indented surfaces,
the platinum's facets are flat.
"We will start with a surface that looks
atomically flat, and then we are going to introduce defects and
see how these defects modify the electro-catalytic activity,"
Scherson said.
Eventually the chemist hopes to design
chemical catalysts that might have some technical capabilities.
Scherson, who has been involved in battery
research for more than two decades, has been focusing on ultra
micro-power.
"We're architects in the lab, building
chemical structures," he said.
His new research concentrates on miniaturizing
energy storage and energy generation devices using electrochemistry.
These miniature energy generators will interface with the new
MEMS (micro-motor) technology and have potential to power the
devices. These ultra tiny devices might power future electronic
noses or sensors or be implanted in the body for medical purposes.
Scherson adds that these small devices
have several efficient features from their controllability to
energy storage.
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