Dorota Matras

Dorota is a Faraday Institution Post Doctoral Research Associate based at I14 beamline. She joined in 2020 after completing her PhD at the University of Manchester, School of Materials where she worked on the development and application of X-ray chemical imaging methods to study operando catalytic materials for methane upgrade processes. In her current role, she employs X-ray chemical imaging techniques to study Li-ion cathode materials designed within the Faraday Institution CATMAT project. She is also working on the development of in situ cells to study battery materials under operating conditions suitable for nano X-ray imaging.

Chemical imaging

Heterogenous functional materials typically possess a non-uniform 3D structure. Such materials are known to change with time and under operating conditions and therefore an insight into their complex structure-function relationships can only obtained via chemical tomography techniques. The combination of computed tomography (CT) with techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and X-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy (XANES) enables for the extraction of local chemical and physical/morphological information within the interiors of intact materials. The obtained spatially-resolved signals can reveal information that would otherwise be lost in bulk measurements. These techniques are based on the scanning approach with the pixel size of the reconstructed image primarily depending on the size of the illuminating X-ray beam. However, these limitations can be successfully overcome by applying the X-ray ptychography technique which can be further expanded to spectro-ptychography.

Batteries

Li-ion batteries (LiBs) have played a major role in energy storage technology, finding broad application in portable electronic devices and electric vehicles. My role within the Faraday Institution CATMAT project is to provide insights into materials properties at both the electrode and the device level, which are crucial in understanding degradation and ageing mechanisms in battery materials. I’m primarily working with novel Li-ion cathode materials; however I’m equally interested in the application of chemical imaging techniques for battery technologies beyond Li-ion.

Catalysis

Catalysis plays an essential role in our society with the vast majority of manufactured chemicals, such as fuels, bulk and fine chemicals obtained via a catalytic reaction. Industrial processes are in majority based on heterogenous catalysis where the catalytic material, typically in the solid form, can be generally more readily separated from the reactants and products present in the gas or liquid phase. Rational design of solid catalysts with enhanced properties is based on understanding of the reaction mechanism(s) and the complex structure-activity relationships. Spectroscopic and scattering imaging studies, especially performed under operating conditions, have proven to be invaluable in capturing dynamic changes occurring in solid catalysts across different length scales. My research interests include catalytic materials for methane upgrade and reforming processes.