Electrocatalysis and electrolyzers: From materials design to functional devices

Invited seminarWhen: Thursday, July 18, 2024 - 11:00 to 13:00
Where: Room number TD2101AA Escola Superior de Tecnologia i Ciències Experimentals
Presented by: Prof. Sixto Gimenez Juliá

Abstract: 

There is an enormous interest in the development of electrosynthetic platforms to transition from current thermally activated industrial processes powered by fossil fuels, into low temperature, electricity-driven alternatives. This approach would facilitate the integration of renewable energy into the industrial standards. This approach is still far from being practical though. Electrolyzer technology is hampered by its high costs, poor energy efficiency, and poor selectivity in most cases.
In this talk we will go through the different challenges in the development of cost and energy efficient processes, starting from the design of the electrocatalysts, and their validation in industrially-ready electrolyzer architectures.
We will describe the major problems looking at the activity/stability paradigms, along the successful (or not) strategies that we are exploring to further improve their electrochemical performance: nanostructuration, doping effects, external magnetic fields, coordination frameworks, etc.

Biography: 

JR Galan-Mascaro’s research career has been essentially multidisciplinary with important contributions to Materials Sciences. During the PhD (University of Valencia, 1999), under the supervision of Prof. E. Coronado, and during a post-doctoral stay at Texas A&M University, in Prof. K. R. Dunbar’s group (1999-2001), JR worked at the forefront of Molecular Magnetism in the design of molecule-based and single-molecule magnets. In 2002, JR joined the Institute of Molecular Sciences (ICMol) at University of Valencia, as Ramon y Cajal Fellow, to work in the development of hybrid multifunctional molecular materials. In 2009, JR moved to the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ) as ICREA Research Professor to lead a research group devoted to the development of new materials for applications in the field of renewable and sustainable fuels and chemicals. JR has been the coordinator of two collaborative projects in the field of solar fuels: A-LEAF (2017-2021) “An artificial leaf: a photo-electro-catalytic cell from earth-abundant materials for sustainable solar production of CO2-based chemicals and fuels”; and SUPERVAL (2023-2026) “Sustainable Photo-Electrochemical valorization of flue gases”. JR has been awarded several ERC European projects: ERC Starting Grant “Building-up Chemical Complexity into Multifunctional Molecule-Based Hybrid Materials” (CHEMCOMP, 2012-2016); and three ERC Proof-of-Concept projects: “A Solar-Powered Hydrolyzer” (HYDRER, 2015-2016), “A novel platform for user-friendly spectroscopy at very low temperatures and under strong magnetic fields” (U-SPEC, 2016–2018), and “Separation membranes for carbon dioxide removal from gas streams” (MEMCARB, 2018–2019).