The 15th International Symposium on Systems with Fast Ionic Transport (ISSFIT-15) organized by the Croatian Association of Crystallographers was held from 18th to 22nd April 2023 in the Sheraton Dubrovnik Riviera Hotel, Dubrovnik, Croatia. The Symposium was generously supported by a number of sponsors: Bruker, Gamry Instruments, Malvern Panalytical, Aparatura d.o.o., Renacon d.o.o., University of Zagreb and Ruđer Bošković Institute.
ISSFIT-15 in numbers
ISSFIT-15 gathered 81 participants: 1 plenary and 8 invited lecturers, 28 researchers/scientists, 31 Ph.D. students and post-doctoral fellows, 2 sponsor representatives, 2 non-academic participants, 2 accompanying persons and 7 organizers. The participants came from 13 countries: Poland (39), Croatia (15), Germany (7), United Kingdom (5), Israel (4), Lithuania (2), Romania (2), Spain (2), Austria (1), Finland (1), Italy (1), Portugal (1) and Slovenia (1).
The scientific program contained 1 plenary lecture, 8 invited lectures, 38 oral presentations and 26 poster presentations. In the ISSFIT-15 Exhibition area two companies, Bruker and Gamry Instruments, presented their products and services.
The program of ISSFIT-15
On the first day of the Symposium, the participants were invited to an informal welcome party in the Prima Vista Lounge Bar of the Sheraton Hotel to kick off ISSFIT-15 with Croatian food and wine. The official opening of ISSFIT-15 took place on Wednesday, 19th April 2023, with welcoming words from Dr. Sc. Ana Šantić, followed by the plenary talk “Ions and electrons in solids: ‘Dark and Bright ‘, given by Prof. Joachim Maier from the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Germany. The Symposium program was organized into single sessions, allowing participants to attend all talks. After the session of oral presentations, Prof. Maria Gazda from the Gdansk University of Technology, Poland, gave an invited talk on the „Electrical properties of multicomponent oxides”. The afternoon session started with the invited talk entitled “Probing the effect of humidity on ion transport in oxide ceramics”, given by Prof. Stephen Skinner from Imperial College London, United Kingdom, followed by sessions of oral and poster presentations. The last invited talk of the day was on “Atomically engineered functional oxide thin films for energy applications” and was delivered by Prof. Matjaž Spreitzer from Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia.
On the third day of the conference, two invited talks were given: “More than meets the Eye: the hidden secrets of oxide ion conducting solid electrolytes” by Prof. Isaac Abrahams from Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom, and “On the origin of non-classical electrostriction in ion conductors” by Prof. Igor Lubomirsky from Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. The invited talks were intertwined with a series of oral presentations. In the afternoon, a guided sightseeing tour of Dubrovnik took place, during which participants strolled through the old town and witnessed its rich history and cultural heritage.
The program on Friday 21st April 2023 commenced with the invited talk “Analysis of defect concentrations vs. oxygen pressure in the surface layer of acceptor doped ceria” by Prof. Ilan Riess from Technion IIT, Israel, and was followed by alternating sessions of oral and poster presentations, as well as one more invited talk on the “Conductivity in solid electrolytes: deviations from Arrhenius law observed by impedance spectroscopy” delivered by Dr. sc. Tomas Šalkus from Vilnius University, Lithuania. After the sessions ended, the meeting of the International Scientific Committee, composed of Prof. Maria Gazda, Prof. Janina Molenda, Prof. Isaac Abrahams, and Prof. Ilan Riess, was held. The main business of the meeting was to consider the venue for the next ISSFIT Symposium. Prof. Sabina Abbrent, from the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry in Prague, Czech Republic, also attended the meeting online and presented Prague as a possible venue for ISSFIT-16 in 2025. After a brief discussion, the Committee accepted her bid. The intense day ended with a relaxed conference dinner in the restaurant “Seoska kuća” in Ćilipi.
The last day of the Symposium began with an invited talk titled “The influence of charge transport and reaction mechanisms on the electrochemical performance properties of lithium- and magnesium-ion batteries with liquid-based electrolytes,” delivered by Dr. sc Damian M. Cupid from the Austrian Institute of Technology, Austria, after which the oral presentations followed. The ISSFIT-15 program ended near noon with closing remarks from Dr. sc. Jasminka Popović, co-chair of ISSFIT-15, thanked the plenary and invited speakers, participants, partners, and sponsors for making this conference a success.
