Keywords

  • Composite nanomaterials
  • High entropy alloys

Research interest

I am currently developing fundamental research on materials under the form of metal hydrides for solid-state hydrogen storage (by solid-gas interaction). My focus is on two main classes of materials: composite nanomaterials for unravelling the nanoscale effect on fundamental properties and, more recently, high entropy alloys for understanding how chemical composition can tune the hydrogen sorption properties.

1) Composite nanomaterials

One promising way to extend the performances of materials for solid state hydrogen storage is to combine the adsorption of molecular H2 on the surface of porous materials with absorption of hydrogen into the volume of metal hydrides. This can be achieved by novel composite nanomaterials formed by the dispersion of metal as nanoparticles/clusters or isolated single atoms on porous hosts (carbons, MOFs). In this context, nanomaterials based on different metals (Mg, transition metals …) are currently prepared with controlled size and dispersion for fine understanding of how nanoscale affects fundamental properties and interaction with gaseous hydrogen. Moreover, these nanomaterials may also find application in the field of heterogeneous catalysis for several reactions involving hydrogen. This aspect is developed in collaboration with colleagues from IRCELYON.

2) High entropy alloys

Recently, my research activities have expanded towards new bulk materials for hydrogen storage, multi-principal element alloys, also known as high entropy alloys. These alloys contains 5 or more elements with compositions between 5 and 35 at.% exploring the regions in the middle of phase diagrams. The overwhelming publication on these alloys describes the structure, microstructure and mechanical properties whereas hydrogen absorption is very scarcely studied. My recent activities in this field consists in the preparation of high entropy alloys by metallurgical and mechanochemical synthetic methods as well as the characterisation of the fundamental properties and hydrogen absorption/desorption performances. This topic is done in collaboration with colleagues from CAM group at ICMPE et French and international teams.

Competences

  • Synthesis and physicochemical characterisation of (nano)materials for applications in solid-state hydrogen storage and heterogeneous catalysis involving hydrogen ,
  • Solid-gas reactivity, in situ and operando studies,
  • Use of large scale facilities for materials characterisation : neutrons and X ray diffraction, X-ray absorption Spectroscopy…

Teaching and tutoring

Since 2015, I am involved into teaching duties at the Université Paris-Est Créteil in the Master 2 “Advanced Materials and nanomaterials”. I am teaching gas adsorption at the surface of solids (~ 10h/year).

Other activities

  • Elected member of the CNRS Board of Trustee (2017-2021),
  • Member of the section 15 of the “Comité national de la Recherche scientifique” (2016-2020)
  • Member of the Scientific Council of the ICMPE (since 2015)

Publications

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