Alexander Surrey was born in Gießen on the 2nd of December in 1986.
After his Abitur in 2005 he began studying physics at the Technical University of Dresden with specialisations in the areas of experimental solid state physics and nanotechnology. 2009 he studied at the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand for one semester supported by a full scholarship of the German Academic Exchange Service. During his studies he worked as a student assistant at the Institute for Structural Physics at the TU Dresden and the Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden (short IFW Dresden) where he also did his diploma thesis. Its topic was the atomic characterization of surfaces of nanoparticles by means of aberration corrected transmission electron microscopy. Alexander Surrey completed his studies with honours in 2011. Since November of 2011 he has been employed at the IFW Dresden as a research assistant.
"Preparation and characterization of nanoconfined solid state hydrogen storages"
Hydrogen, which is an attractive energy storage, will gain increasing significance for the future, purely renewable energy supply. Compared to the presently established gas storage of hydrogen, the storage in a solid state such as metal hydrides or complex hydrides is a promising approach due to considerably higher volumetric and gravimetric densities. However, because of problems concerning the reaction kinetics, the thermodynamics and the reversibility this technology has not passed into the application yet. Within the scope the PhD this storage method is going to be developed further through the synthesis of nanoconfined hydrides which show enhanced hydrogen storage properties due to their tailored nanostructure. This can be studied and monitored using the aberration corrected transmission electron microscope. The research aims towards the preparation and characterization of metal hydride nanoparticles and melt infiltrated complex hydrides into carbon nanotubes. The hydrogen storage properties of these materials are to be optimized in order to meet the requirements
