Barbara A. J. Lechner studied Chemistry at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. She obtained her Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Cambridge in 2012. As a postdoctoral fellow, she joined the group of Prof. Miquel Salmeron at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, CA, and subsequently became a group leader at the Chair of Physical Chemistry at TUM. She received an ERC Starting Grant in 2019. Since May 2018, she is a member of the “Young Academy” of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. In October 2020, she was appointed Rudolf Mößbauer Tenure Track Professor at the Department of Chemistry of TUM.
Selected Awards
2019, ERC Starting Grant
2018, Fellow of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities as one of the members of their “Young Academy”
2017-2019, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship
2016, Max Auwärter Prize (Max Auwärter Foundation & Austrian Physical Society)
2016-2017, Humboldt Research Fellowship (Alexander von Humboldt Foundation)
2013, Springer Thesis Prize (Springer Publishing)
2012-2013, Doctoral Prize (EPSRC, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council)
2011-2012, DOC-fFORTE Scholarship (ÖAW, Austrian Academy of Sciences)
2008-2012, PhD studentship covering university and college fees (EPSRC)
2008-2010, Postgraduate Stipend (ÖAD, Austrian Exchange Service & Federal Ministry of Science and Research of Austria)
Research Interests
Barbara Lechner’s research focusses on the investigation of the dynamic restructuring of functional nanomaterials under realistic conditions, e.g. model catalysts under a reactive gas atmosphere. To this purpose, they place a scanning tunneling microscope with high temporal and spatial resolution directly into gas mixtures and thus investigate how the structure of particles (metal clusters) and oxide supports changes under these conditions. By using small clusters with a precisely defined number of atoms, it is possible to investigate how the formation and decay of highly reactive particle structures occurs, can be controlled and how such structural changes influence the function of a material.
Selected Publications
B. Arndt, B. A. J. Lechner, A. Bourgund, E. Grånäs, M. Creutzburg, K. Krausert, J. Hulva, G. S. Parkinson, M. Schmid, V. Vonk, F. Esch, A. Stierle, “Order-disorder phase transition of the subsurface cation vacancy reconstruction on Fe3O4(001)”, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 22, 8336-8343 (2020).
A. Bourgund, B. A. J. Lechner, M. Meier, C. Franchini, G. S. Parkinson, U. Heiz, F. Esch, “Influence of local defects on the dynamics of O-H bond breaking and formation on a magnetite surface”, J. Phys. Chem. C, 123, 19742-19747 (2019).
C. Dri, M. Panighel, D. Tiemann, L. L. Patera, G. Troiano, Y. Fukamori, F. Knoller, B. A. J. Lechner, G. Cautero, D. Giuressi, G. Comelli, J. Fraxedas, C. Africh, F. Esch, “The new FAST module: A portable and transparent add-on module for time-resolved investigations with commercial scanning probe microscopes”,Ultramicroscopy, 205, 49-56 (2019).
B.A.J. Lechner, F. Knoller, A. Bourgund, U. Heiz, F. Esch, “A microscopy approach to investigating the energetics of small supported metal clusters”, J. Phys. Chem. C, 122, 22569-22576 (2018).
B. Zugic, L. Wang, C. Heine, D. N. Zakharov, B. A. J. Lechner, E. A. Stach, J. Biener, M. Salmeron, R. J. Madix, C. M. Friend, “Dynamic restructuring drives catalytic activity on nanoporous gold-silver alloy catalysts”, Nat. Mater.16, 558-564 (2017).
B. A. J. Lechner, X. Feng, P. J. Feibelman, J. I. Cerdà, M. Salmeron, “Scanning tunneling microscopy study of the structure and interaction between carbon monoxide and hydrogen on the Ru(0001) surface”, J. Phys. Chem. B122, 649 (2017).
C. Heine, B. A. J. Lechner, H. Bluhm, M. Salmeron, “Recycling of CO2: Probing the chemical state of the Ni(111) surface during the methanation reaction with ambient pressure x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy”, J. Am. Chem. Soc.138, 13246 (2016).
P. Rotter, B. A. J. Lechner, A. Morherr, D. M. Chisnall, D. Ward, A. P. Jardine, J. Ellis, W. Allison, B. Eckhardt, G. Witte, “Coupling between diffusion and orientation of pentacene molecules on an organic surface”, Nat. Mater.15, 397-400 (2016).
S. Maier, B. A. J. Lechner, G. A. Somorjai, M. Salmeron, “Growth and structure of the first layers of ice on Ru(0001) and Pt(111)”, J. Am. Chem. Soc.138, 3145-3151 (2016).
B. A. J. Lechner, H. Hedgeland, J. Ellis, W. Allison, M. Sacchi, S. J. Jenkins, B. J. Hinch, “Quantum influences in the diffusive motion of pyrrole/Cu(111)”, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 52, 5085-5088 (2013).
