The Research Center Future Energy Materials and Systems aims to develop new materials that are urgently needed for energy carrier generation, energy conversion, storage, and transport in a targeted, rapid and sustainable manner. The goal is to understand fundamental properties and relevant processes in the generation and use of complex materials in order to develop building blocks for a sustainable energy system. At the same time, the college is looking into regenerative processes to replace energy-intensive ways of materials production and processing.

The ways in which composition and processing influence materials structures and properties are considered along all relevant length scales from the atom to the component. The goal is to realize the vision of the knowledge-based development of novel materials and processes for the energy system of the future, thus replacing a development approach, which so far is often empirical and sequential, with materials and process design.

In concrete terms, this involves such things as the fundamental design of novel materials, including interfaces and surfaces, starting from the atomic scale on the basis of materials exploration with experimental and simulative high-throughput methods. For this purpose, hypotheses are derived from physical and chemical models in combination with machine learning and optimized in an iterative and experimentally simulative design cycle to obtain correlations between chemical composition, crystal structure and microstructure of new, chemically complex materials for applications under extreme conditions. Furthermore, the focus is on observing and controlling quantum mechanical processes in real time at interfaces and in heterostructures for energy-relevant materials such as catalysts, batteries, magnets, and superconductors. Another field of interest is the development of scalable synthesis, coating, and structuring methods. These close the gap between newly discovered materials and their implementation in electrochemical and electrified processes and make it possible to evaluate the innovative material concepts in a system context. Aspects of sustainability, resource availability, cost effectiveness and usability in the energy system are considered from the very outset and set priorities for the development of components and system-compatible materials.