MSE Seminar: Dr. Alexis Grimaud: College de France

Location

B11 Kimball Hall

Description

Alexis Grimaud
Dr. Alexis Grimaud, Collège de France

Electrochemical interfaces: from materials to interfacial descriptors

 

While the quest for new electro-active materials has led to the rapid development of energy storage and conversion devices such as Li-ion batteries, fuel cells, electrolyzers etc., their integration into a practical device relies on mastering the interface forming with the ionic conductor used as electrolyte. To understand the ions and electrons exchange occurring at such complex interface, methodologies must be developed. This is especially true for the solid/liquid interface which is found dynamic as a function of time, space, applied potential etc. When studying such interface, two difficulties arise. First, controlling the surface chemistry and electronic properties of solids, and especially of transition metal oxides often used as electro-active materials for batteries or low temperature electrolyzers/fuel cells, is challenging. Second, understanding the structure of the double layer forming at the electrochemical interface often proves complex by the means of laboratory techniques. Toward that goal, our group is focusing on developing chemical strategies to constrain the solvation structure of water in order to study its reactivity at electrochemical interfaces. Thus, using non-reactive chemical matrices, ions/ions, ions/water and water/water interactions can be selectively controlled. Doing so, different populations of water molecules can be sorted out and their reactivity at metallic or transition metal oxides surfaces investigated. Examples will first be given about the use of superconcentrated aqueous electrolytes for the development of aqueous Li-ion batteries before to describe our recent results in the development of water splitting catalysts. Throughout the talk, emphasis will be paid about how bulk properties of solid electro-active materials as well as liquid electrolytes translate to the electrochemical interface.

Biography: Alexis Grimaud is a CNRS associate researcher in the Solid-State Chemistry and Energy Laboratory at Collège de France, Paris. After graduating from the Institut of Condensed Matter of Bordeaux (ICMCB) where he obtained his PhD in 2011, he then worked as a postdoctoral associate at MIT under the direction of Prof. Yang Shao-Horn. Since 2014, Dr. Grimaud is focusing on the understanding of ions and electrons transfer at electrochemical interfaces for the development of water splitting catalysts as well as of new battery chemistries.

Contact

Alexis Grimaud - alexis.grimaud@college-de-france.fr