TY - JOUR A1 - Karafiludis, Stephanos A1 - de Oliveira Guilherme Buzanich, Ana A1 - Kochovski, Z. A1 - Feldmann, Ines A1 - Emmerling, Franziska A1 - Stawski, Tomasz T1 - Ni- and Co-Struvites: Revealing Crystallization Mechanisms and Crystal Engineering toward Applicational Use of Transition Metal Phosphates N2 - Industrial and agricultural waste streams (waste water, sludges, tailings, etc.) which contain high concentrations of NH4+, PO43–, and transition metals are environmentally harmful and toxic pollutants. At the same time, phosphorous and transition metals constitute highly valuable resources. Typically, separate pathways have been considered to extract hazardous transition metals or phosphate independently from each other. Investigations on the simultaneous removal of multiple components have been carried out only to a limited extent. Here, we report the synthesis routes for Ni- and Co-struvites (NH4MPO4·6H2O, M = Ni2+ and Co2+), which allow for P, ammonia, and metal co-precipitation. By evaluating different reaction parameters, the phase and stability of transition metal struvites as well as their crystal morphologies and sizes could be optimized. Ni-struvite is stable in a wide reactant concentration range and at different metal/phosphorus (M/P) ratios, whereas Co-struvite only forms at low M/P ratios. Detailed investigations of the precipitation process using ex situ and in situ techniques provided insights into the crystallization mechanisms/crystal engineering of these materials. M-struvites crystallize via intermediate colloidal amorphous nanophases, which subsequently aggregate and condense to final crystals after extended reaction times. However, the exact reaction kinetics of the formation of a final crystalline product varies significantly depending on the involved metal cation in the precipitation process: several seconds (Mg) to minutes (Ni) to hours (Co). The achieved level of control over the morphology and size makes precipitation of transition metal struvites a promising method for direct metal recovery and binding them in the form of valuable phosphate raw materials. Under this paradigm, the crystals can be potentially up-cycled as precursor powders for electrochemical or (electro)catalytic applications, which require transition metal phosphates. KW - Crystallization KW - Struvite KW - Nickel KW - Cobalt KW - Phosphorous recovery KW - Up-cycling KW - Aqueous synthesis PY - 2022 DO - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.cgd.2c00284 VL - 22 IS - 7 SP - 4305 EP - 4315 PB - ACS Publications CY - Washington D.C. AN - OPUS4-55286 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bartczak, Dorota A1 - Sikora, Aneta A1 - Goenaga-Infante, Heidi A1 - Altmann, Korinna A1 - Drexel, Roland A1 - Meier, Florian A1 - Alasonati, Enrica A1 - Lelong, Marc A1 - Cado, Florence A1 - Chivas-Joly, Carine A1 - Fadda, Marta A1 - Sacco, Alessio A1 - Rossi, Andrea Mario A1 - Pröfrock, Daniel A1 - Wippermann, Dominik A1 - Barbero, Francesco A1 - Fenoglio, Ivana A1 - Booth, Andy M. A1 - Sørensen, Lisbet A1 - Igartua, Amaia A1 - Wouters, Charlotte A1 - Mast, Jan A1 - Barbaresi, Marta A1 - Rossi, Francesca A1 - Piergiovanni, Maurizio A1 - Mattarozzi, Monica A1 - Careri, Maria A1 - Caebergs, Thierry A1 - Piette, Anne-Sophie A1 - Parot, Jeremie A1 - Giovannozzi, Andrea Mario T1 - Multiparameter characterisation of a nano-polypropylene representative test material with fractionation, light scattering, high-resolution microscopy, spectroscopy, and spectrometry methods N2 - Reference and quality control materials with comparable physicochemical properties to nanoplastic contaminants present in environmental and food nanoplastics are currently lacking. Here we report a nanoplastic polypropylene material prepared using a top-down approach involving mechanical fragmentation of larger plastics. The material was found to be homogeneous and stable in suspension and has been characterised for average particle size, size distribution range, particle number concentration, polypropylene mass fraction and inorganic impurity Content using a wide range of analytical methods, including AF4, cFFF, PTA, (MA)DLS, MALS, SEM, AFM, TEM, STEM, EDS,Raman, ICP-MS and pyGC-MS. The material was found to have a broad size distribution, ranging from 50 nm to over 200 nm, with the average particle size value dependent on the technique used to determine it. Particle number concentration ranged from 1.7–2.4 × 1010 g−1 , according to PTA. Spectroscopy techniques confirmed that the material was polypropylene, with evidence of aging due to an increased level of oxidation. The measured mass fraction was found to depend on the marker used and ranged between 3 and 5 μg g−1 . Inorganic impurities such as Si, Al, Mg, K, Na, S, Fe, Cl and Ca were also identified at ng g−1 levels. Comparability and complementarity across the measurement methods and techniques is also discussed. KW - Polypropylene KW - Nanoplastics KW - Analytics KW - Reference material KW - Scattering methods PY - 2026 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-654680 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/D5EN00917K SN - 2051-8153 SP - 1 EP - 15 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) AN - OPUS4-65468 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Altmann, Korinna T1 - Production of reference materials using a quality by design approach N2 - Accurate analysis of microplastics is based on validated methods and the use of standardized protocols. Therefore, reference materials are essential to determine recovery rates and optimise the existing workflows. The reference materials should mimic the reality in terms of particle properties and concentration and are intended for a special use. The Quality-by-Design approach helps to select the users need and defines a target product profile with mandatory and desired particle properties. We will address different reference material top-down production processes with their limits and challenges for production of materials varying in size ranges of micro- and nanoplastics. T2 - OECD Workshop on Nanoplastics CY - Paris, France DA - 12.11.2025 KW - Microplastics KW - Reference materials KW - Nanoplastics KW - Quality-by-Design PY - 2025 AN - OPUS4-64717 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Ryll, Tom William T1 - Researching automation of gypsum recycling N2 - This poster illustrates the recent work on a setup for automated in-situ analysis of gypsum recycling processes. Analysis in synchrotron X-rays, Raman- and UV-vis spectroscopy are made possible with this compact and mobile setup. First results from Raman spectroscopy on the conversion of gypsum to bassanite in hypersaline solutions are presented and future plans on optimization are formulated. T2 - ANAKON 2025 CY - Leipzig, Germany DA - 10.03.2025 KW - Recycling KW - Automation KW - Synchrotron-X-ray-diffraction KW - Raman-spectroscopy KW - Gypsum PY - 2025 AN - OPUS4-62706 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hemingway, Jack M. A1 - Quayle, Heather M. A1 - Byrne, Cian A1 - Pulham, Colin R. A1 - Mondal, Subrata A1 - Michalchuk, Adam A1 - Morrison, Carole A. T1 - Predicting impact sensitivities for an extended set of energetic materials via the vibrational up-pumping model: Molecular-based structure–property relationships identified N2 - We have applied the vibrational up-pumping model to predict the mechanically-induced impact sensitivities of 33 molecular energetic crystals. Overall, the current model successfully identifies and ranks the compounds that are most sensitive to mechanical initiation, but offers poorer differentiation between compounds with lower sensitivity. Further developments to include the effects of trigger bond activation led to significant improvements in predictive capability. We show that this structure–property model highlights the importance of molecular flexibility in predicting impact sensitivity, and furthermore, we show that the Kier molecular flexibility index, which can be obtained from a SMILES string, offers a simple molecular-based descriptor that goes some way towards predicting the sensitivity of energetic materials. KW - Vibrational KW - Pyrazoles KW - Comprising KW - Electronic PY - 2025 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-632651 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/d5cp00852b SN - 1463-9076 VL - 27 IS - 22 SP - 11640 EP - 11648 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) CY - Cambridge AN - OPUS4-63265 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ghiringhelli, Luca M. A1 - Baldauf, Carsten A1 - Bereau, Tristan A1 - Brockhauser, Sandor A1 - Carbogno, Christian A1 - Chamanara, Javad A1 - Cozzini, Stefano A1 - Curtarolo, Stefano A1 - Draxl, Claudia A1 - Dwaraknath, Shyam A1 - Fekete, Ádám A1 - Kermode, James A1 - Koch, Christoph T. A1 - Kühbach, Markus A1 - Ladines, Alvin Noe A1 - Lambrix, Patrick A1 - Himmer, Maja-Olivia A1 - Levchenko, Sergey V. A1 - Oliveira, Micael A1 - Michalchuk, Adam A1 - Miller, Ronald E. A1 - Onat, Berk A1 - Pavone, Pasquale A1 - Pizzi, Giovanni A1 - Regler, Benjamin A1 - Rignanese, Gian-Marco A1 - Schaarschmidt, Jörg A1 - Scheidgen, Markus A1 - Schneidewind, Astrid A1 - Sheveleva, Tatyana A1 - Su, Chuanxun A1 - Usvyat, Denis A1 - Valsson, Omar A1 - Wöll, Christof A1 - Scheffler, Matthias T1 - Shared metadata for data-centric materials science N2 - The expansive production of data in materials science, their widespread sharing and repurposing requires educated support and stewardship. In order to ensure that this need helps rather than hinders scientific work, the implementation of the FAIR-data principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) must not be too narrow. Besides, the wider materials-science community ought to agree on the strategies to tackle the challenges that are specific to its data, both from computations and experiments. In this paper, we present the result of the discussions held at the workshop on “Shared Metadata and Data Formats for Big-Data Driven Materials Science”. We start from an operative definition of metadata, and the features that a FAIR-compliant metadata schema should have. We will mainly focus on computational materials-science data and propose a constructive approach for the FAIRification of the (meta)data related to ground-state and excited-states calculations, potential-energy sampling, and generalized workflows. Finally, challenges with the FAIRification of experimental (meta)data and materials-science ontologies are presented together with an outlook of how to meet them. KW - Library and Information Sciences KW - Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty KW - Computer Science Applications KW - Education KW - Information Systems KW - Statistics and Probability PY - 2023 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-584846 DO - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02501-8 VL - 10 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 18 PB - Springer Science and Business Media LLC AN - OPUS4-58484 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Speight, Isaiah R. A1 - Ardila-Fierro, Karen J. A1 - Hernández, José G. A1 - Emmerling, Franziska A1 - Michalchuk, Adam A1 - García, Felipe A1 - Colacino, Evelina A1 - Mack, James T1 - Ball milling for mechanochemical reactions N2 - Mechanochemistry is an emerging field with the potential to pave the way for sustainable chemistry. Although the use of mechanical force to initiate chemical reactions has been recognized for millennia, it has often taken a backseat to thermal and photonic methods. Over the past 30 years, mechanochemistry has seen a resurgence of interest, attracting researchers across the globe. Despite its proven ability to address numerous challenges within the chemical community, mechanochemistry remains on the periphery. This Primer serves as a valuable guide for conducting mechanochemical reactions by ball milling, offering an overview of the processes, methods, tools and terminology necessary to embark on research in this field. It also highlights persistent hurdles such as equipment standardization, understanding the impact of new discoveries and the lack of predictability of reaction outcomes. The Primer’s focus is on how mechanochemical ball milling is used in various chemical transformations, distinguishing it from other forms of mechanochemistry discussed in the literature. With a promising future, this Primer serves as a gateway for those aspiring to contribute to the field’s advancement. KW - Mechanochemistry KW - Ball milling KW - Upscaling PY - 2025 DO - https://doi.org/10.1038/s43586-025-00401-2 SN - 2662-8449 VL - 5 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 18 PB - Springer Science and Business Media LLC AN - OPUS4-63447 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Michalchuk, Adam T1 - On the physical processes of mechanochemically induced transformations in molecular solids N2 - Initiating or sustaining physical and chemical transformations with mechanical force – mechanochemistry – provides an opportunity for more sustainable chemical processes, and access to new chemical reactivity. KW - Molecular solids KW - Transformation KW - Destabilisation KW - Instabilities KW - Common phenomenon PY - 2024 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-621755 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/d4cc04062g IS - 99 SP - 1 EP - 12 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) AN - OPUS4-62175 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Driscoll, Laura L. A1 - Driscoll, Elizabeth H. A1 - Dong, Bo A1 - Sayed, Farheen N. A1 - Wilson, Jacob N. A1 - O’Keefe, Christopher A. A1 - Gardner, Dominic J. A1 - Grey, Clare P. A1 - Allan, Phoebe K. A1 - Michalchuk, Adam A1 - Slater, Peter R. T1 - Under pressure: offering fundamental insight into structural changes on ball milling battery materials N2 - Synthesis of Li ion battery materials via ball milling has been a huge area of growth, leading to new high-capacity electrode materials, such as a number of promising disordered rocksalt (DRS) phases. In prior work, it was generally assumed that the synthesis was facilitated simply by local heating effects during the milling process. In this work, we show that ball milling Li2MoO4 leads to a phase transformation to the high pressure spinel polymorph and we report electrochemical data for this phase. This observation of the formation of a high pressure polymorph shows that local heating effects alone cannot explain the phase transformation observed (phenakite to spinel) and so indicates the importance of other effects. In particular, we propose that when the milling balls collide with the material, the resulting shockwaves exert a localised pressure effect, in addition to local heating. To provide further support for this, we additionally report ball milling results for a number of case studies (Li2MnO3, Li2SnO3, Nb2O5) which reinforces the conclusion that local heating alone cannot explain the phase transformations observed. The work presented thus provides greater fundamental understanding of milling as a synthetic pathway and suggests potential strategies to prepare such samples without milling (e.g., doping to create internal chemical pressure). In addition, we suggest that further research is needed into the effect of the use of milling as a route to smaller particles, since we believe that such milling may also be affecting the surface structure of the particles through the influence of the shockwaves generated. KW - Pollution KW - Nuclear Energy and Engineering KW - Sustainability and the Environment KW - Environmental Chemistry KW - Renewable Energy PY - 2023 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-590086 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/d3ee00249g VL - 16 IS - 11 SP - 5196 EP - 5209 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) AN - OPUS4-59008 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Dudziak, Mateusz A1 - Riechers, Birte A1 - Maaß, Robert A1 - Michalchuk, Adam A1 - Schönhals, Andreas A1 - Szymoniak, Paulina T1 - Beyond conventional calorimetry: Unlocking thermal characterization with fast scanning techniques N2 - Fast scanning calorimetry (FSC) has emerged as a transformative technique in thermal analysis, enabling the investigation of rapid and kinetically driven thermal transitions that are inaccessible to conventional differential scanning calorimetry. This review highlights the capabilities enabled by FSC for studying a wide range of materials under extreme thermal conditions, including polymers, pharmaceuticals, metallic glasses, nanocomposites, and hydrogels. By employing ultrafast heating and cooling rates, FSC allows for the suppression of crystallization, resolution of weak transitions, and analysis of thermally labile or size-limited samples. The technique is particularly valuable for probing glass transitions, relaxation phenomena, and phase behavior in systems with complex morphologies or confined geometries. Case studies demonstrate the use of FSC in characterizing vitrification, physical aging, and interfacial dynamics, as well as its application in emerging fields such as additive manufacturing, supramolecular systems, and neuromorphic materials. Together, these examples underscore the role that FSC plays in advancing the understanding of structure-property relationships across diverse material classes. KW - Flash DSC KW - Calorimetry KW - Glass transition PY - 2025 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-647405 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tca.2025.180177 VL - 754 SP - 1 EP - 14 PB - Elsevier B.V. AN - OPUS4-64740 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -