When: 27 February, 2025, 14:00 - 15:00 CET
Speaker: Nils Skoglund, Umeå University, Sweden
Title: From idea to synchrotron X-ray beam on sample – what in-house analysis did we need to write beam time applications?
Abstract
Environmental and climate research has many faces, and the question of sustainable sourcing and reuse of elements is one of them. In our research this is intimately linked to the carbon cycle and the acknowledged role of bioenergy in humanity’s path away from fossil fuel dependency.
The aim of this talk is to discuss how elements in biomass and biogenic residues move through high-temperature applications, how it affects possibilities or recycling or recovery, and why we needed X-ray in the university laboratory and at synchrotrons to better understand these flows. The focus will be the linkage from theoretical modelling to powder X-ray diffraction, and from there the leap to synchrotron radiation in tomography or absorption spectroscopy to change our understanding of feasible reaction pathways. The samples will contain compounds familiar to most working with geochemistry or soil, and perhaps some surprises on the phosphate side.
Bio
Docent Skoglund is active in high-temperature chemistry presently working at the Department of Applied Physics and Electronics at Umeå University, Sweden. His first experience with synchrotron radiation was as a master student at MAX II and beamline I811 for X-ray absorption spectroscopy. Current research embraces the multimodality available at different beamlines and also the correlation of in-house techniques to understand ash fractions and biochars that contain most of the periodic table – in predictable compounds!
