Springorum Commemorative Coin honours outstanding Master’s thesis on thermoelectric materials

RWTH Aachen University recognises Florian Busch

At a glance

• Award: RWTH Aachen University's Springorum Commemorative Coin, awarded to the top 10% of graduates in each RWTH faculty.
• Recipient: PhD researcher Florian Busch at the Max Planck Institute for Sustainable Materials.
• Research topic: The influence of microscopic grain boundaries on heat and electrical transport in tin telluride-based thermoelectric materials.
• Key finding: Small chemical variations at grain boundaries can significantly affect how efficiently heat and electricity move through the material.
• Why it matters: Vast amounts of energy are lost as waste heat. Thermoelectric materials can recover part of this energy by converting heat directly into electricity.

PhD researcher Florian Busch at the Max Planck Institute for Sustainable Materials (MPI-SusMat) has been awarded the Springorum Commemorative Coin by RWTH Aachen University in recognition of his outstanding academic performance during his Master's studies in Sustainable Materials Engineering.

"I am very excited to receive this award", says Busch. "My master's studies were full of new and exciting experiences, but I would never have expected to end up at the Max Planck Institute for a master’s thesis and now even for my PhD studies."

Turning waste heat into electricity

For his award-winning Master's thesis, Busch investigated thermoelectric materials, a class of materials capable of converting waste heat directly into electricity. Such materials could help improve energy efficiency by harvesting heat that would otherwise be lost in industrial processes, vehicles, or electronic devices.

Using a combination of advanced microscopy and local transport measurements, Busch investigated manganese-alloyed tin telluride and analysed how chemical variations at grain boundaries affect the material’s performance. The study revealed that small-scale chemical segregations at these interfaces can significantly alter both heat flow and electrical conductivity.

In his PhD work, Busch will continue down the path of investigating thermoelectrics, particularly the role of micro- and nanoscopic defects on the performance. His focus will lie on high-resolution characterisation with scanning and transmission electron microscopy in the group of Nanoanalytics and Interfaces, led by Professor Christina Scheu.

About the Springorum Commemorative Coin

The Springorum Commemorative Coin is awarded by the Association of Friends of Aachen University, pro RWTH, to graduates of Master's, teacher education, and state examination programmes who complete their studies with distinction. Each year, the award recognises the top ten per cent of graduates from every faculty at RWTH Aachen University.

The coin is named after Dr.-Ing. E.h. Friedrich Springorum, co-founder of pro RWTH, and a prominent supporter of science and engineering education.