TEESMAT WINTER SCHOOL

The TEESMAT winter school was implemented from January 10th to 14th 2022. The steering committee initially had organised the school as a hybrid event, with a physical presence in ESRF headquarters in Grenoble, allowing student and lecturer interaction, hands-on training on characterisation techniques and a dinner social event for participant bonding. Unfortunately, the strict regulation from the French government after Christmas due to COVID-19 restricted the winter school to take place only in online mode.

However, the success of the event was remarkable. Nearly 120 people from around Europe registered and joined the event by the zoom platform. About 100 engineers, scientists and students actively participated in most sessions. The school opened with the presentation of the project by the coordinator Fabien Perdu from CEA, following Claude Chanson presenting the EU vision on energy storage. The first two days included exciting talks on niche-technology subjects related to energy storage technologies such as battery material types, characterisation of these materials at the surface level and at the sub-surface nanoscale achieved by synchrotron/neutron beam, the characterisation of fuel cells, redox flow, Zn-based and supercapacitor systems by prominent lecturers of the European battery field. The role of modelling was also presented. The first part of the school (Monday and Tuesday) ended with a round table discussion on how TEESMAT supports and promotes the development of energy storage systems to the next day.

The second part of the event (Wednesday to Friday) contained lectures on the TEESMAT characterisation techniques covering most of the up to date tools that current and future engineers will apply for next-generation energy storage system development and optimisation. In total, twelve techniques were presented, followed by meaningful audience discussions and insights. The winter school program concluded with four workshops of 1.5 hr each. The workshops covered data acquisition and treatment at the nanotomography and the hard X-ray beamlines and the practical use of modelling in batteries, substituting in the online mode of the hands-on training session.