Nomination of Jacob Bæk Grinderslev for the Danscatt 2020 PhD prize
Jacob Bæk Grinderslev has conducted his doctoral studies under the supervision of Professor Torben R. Jensen at the Interdisciplinary Nanoscience center, University of Aarhus. His doctoral dissertation entitled Boron and Nitrogen Based Complex Metal Hydrides as Energy Storage Materials is based on seventeen publications of which Jacob Bæk Grinderslev is the first author of eight.
In his thesis, Jacob Bæk Grinderslev describes the design and development of several new synthesis strategies, and the application of these methods to synthesize more than 100 new compounds. Some of the synthesized electrolytes are very promising and are the foundation for two patent applications.
The new compounds are structurally characterized and refined using in-situ high resolution diffraction data from synchrotron facilities. A new approach, where the Rietveld refinements are combined with DFT structural optimization, is presented. This interesting new approach gives very accurate locations of weakly scattering hydrogen atoms, allowing the investigation of weak interactions, and revealing a new cation conductivity mechanism in the solid state.
Taken together the work of Jacob Bæk Grinderslev during his PhD studies is very impressive and truly deserves to be awarded this years Danscatt 2020 PhD prize, sponsored by Xnovo Technology.
