External doctoral student receives award for his research
Dr Johannes Näther received the Young Talent Award of the German Society for Electroplating and Surface Technology (DGO) 2022 during the ZVO Surface Technology Days 2022, organised by the Zentralverband Oberflächentechnik e.V. Dr Näther completed his doctorate as a doctoral student at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at Chemnitz University of Technology during his work at Mittweida University of Applied Sciences as part of a Cooperative doctoral procedure . This honouring of his achievements is worthy of recognition and underlines the relevance of the doctoral project. Congratulations!
Professor Thomas Lampke, Head of the WOT Chair at Chemnitz University of Technology, is currently supervising 26 doctoral students. 10 doctoral students are „external“, who are gaining further academic qualifications from industry or through cooperative doctoral programmes. Co-operative doctorates allow academics from a University of Applied Sciences (HAW) to obtain a doctorate under the co-supervision of a university professor at their faculty. Through the common interest of the participants and regular dialogues, e.g. in the WOT doctoral seminar this approach is very successful.
Dr Näther received the prize for his research work on the electrodeposition of iridium. Iridium is characterised by high hardness, corrosion resistance and electrical conductivity. Furthermore, iridium/iridium oxide has a very high catalytic activity and longevity for the oxygen formation reaction and plays an important role in polymer electrolyte membrane electrolysis (PEM electrolysis). Iridium is therefore very interesting as a contact or catalyst material, especially as a contact or catalyst layer in view of the targeted use of resources. Commercial realisation of iridium deposition by electroplating has not been possible to date due to the lack of iridium electrolytes. This is where Dr Näther's work came in. Dr Näther succeeded in depositing iridium layers from aqueous sodium hexabromoiridate(III) electrolytes and determining their application properties. This opened up potential areas of application for thin iridium layers for plug contacts in the electronics sector or for electrodeposited iridium nanoparticles for PEM electrolysis.
Dr Näther's excellent work can be accessed via the following link:
https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bsz:ch1-qucosa2-761604
Photo: Dr Johannes Näther (centre) with Prof. Dr Frank Köster (left, Mittweida University of Applied Sciences) and Prof. Dr habil. Thomas Lampke after the award ceremony at the ZVO's Leipzig Surface Days [Photo: Sven Hobbiesiefken]
7.11.2022 – Personnel of the professorship ( thomas.grund@mb… )
