Invited seminar
Author: Laia Francàs
Affiliation: Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona
When: Monday, September 19, 2022 - 11:00 to 12:00
Where: Seminar First Floor
Presented by: Sixto Giménez
Biography: 
Dr. Laia Francàs is an expert in the study of catalytic reactions for solar fuels production: From the catalyst design to the mechanistic study of light-driven reactions. Firstly, she started with the design, synthesis, characterisation and evaluation of molecular homogenous catalysts for water oxidation, during her PhD (2006-2011) in Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) under the supervision of Dr. Escriche, Dr. Sala and Prof. Llobet. My main project during my first postdoctoral stage (2012-2014) in ICIQ in Llobet’s group was the attachment of these molecular catalysts onto conductive and semiconductive surfaces. At Imperial College London (ICL, 2015-2018) she worked in Prof. Durrant’s group, applying my molecular catalytic knowledge to decipher water oxidation mechanisms on different metal oxides. Since 2020, she have started her own research group at UAB, thanks to a Ramon y Cajal contract, to design ligand functionalised (photo)electrodes and study their properties by using UV-Vis spectroelectrochemistry.