The electronic structure and chemical state of an interface/surface is determined by the surrounding environment, which in last term rules its properties. These properties, as chemical composition and chemical state, are of main importance because they determine the performance of the electrode under relevant working conditions. However, there are many difficulties, ascribed to the complexity of these systems, that hinder the total understanding of the electrochemical processes. Synchrotron X-ray based techniques have emerged as an important tool for the characterization, being non-destructive methods that provide relevant information of a material of interest in an element specific way. Unfortunately, these techniques present sometimes a lot of challenges to overcome when applied to the study of electrochemical systems under operando conditions. They are hardly compatible with liquids especially in the soft X-ray regime and when using electrons. However, in the last years there have been a lot of efforts to use these state-of-theart techniques for different electrochemical studies with a huge potential impact in our society, i.e. for H generation/storage, CO valorization, batteries etc. This symposium will focus on in situ/operando techniques developed for the investigation of electrochemical energy materials under relevant working conditions using X-ray synchrotron-based techniques.
- Electrochemical energy storage
- Synchrotron X-ray radiation
- In situ-operando
Carlos Escudero obtained the Degree in Chemistry at the Universitat de Barcelona (UB), where he also achieved a Master degree in Experimental Chemistry, and defended his PhD in Chemistry in 2007, qualified Excellent cum laude with European mention. During his last year of the Chemistry degree, he did an Internship in BAYER and obtained the Certificate of Pedagogic Aptitude in Physics and Chemistry at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). During these years, he also conducted research at the Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona and at the Università degli Studi di Catania (Italy). During his postdoctoral stage, he worked at the UB as Associate Professor and after that, he moved to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL, United States) where he also worked at the Advanced Light Source (ALS), the Berkeley synchrotron, as a Fulbright Scholar. He joined ALBA synchrotron as postdoc in 2012 and since 2014 he has been working there as beamline scientist. In November 2024 he also started a collaboration as invited scientist at the UPC.
During the first stage of his scientific career, he achieved significant contributions in studies about chirality and supramolecular chemistry that were published in prestigious journals. Then, since Berkeley and until now, he focused on the study of heterogeneous catalysts and electrochemistry using operando synchrotron techniques. He has made important contributions in several high-impact journals (Science, Nat. Catal., Energy Environ. Sci., Nat. Comm., JACS, ACS Catal., etc.), some published as journal covers. During his scientific career he has published around 100 articles that have been cited more than 4000 times, his h-index is 36 (WOS) and he has more than 150 contributions to conferences (7 Invited Lectures). He has participated in 14 competitive research projects, in 4 of them as principal investigator, and in 3 other non-competitive projects at ALBA. During his first years at ALBA, he worked in the CIRCE beamline, building and commissioning the NAPP endstation (AP-XPS) which started to operate with external users in 2014. Since February 2020, he joined a new project at ALBA focused on the construction and commissioning of a new beamline, NOTOS (XAS & XRD), which is open to external users since mid-2022, with high demand and success. During his work in UB, LBNL and ALBA he has established multiple national and international collaborations, as demonstrated by his publication record.
He has played a crucial role in training young scientists, participating in teaching activities within the Chemistry degree at UB and supervising several Master, PhD students and postdocs. He has co-supervised one PhD student together with Prof. Jordi Llorca from UPC. He has also taught postgraduate courses in Spain and and collaborated in the European master in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology from the UB. Carlos has participated in the organization of international training schools and symposiums in conferences, served on several PhD thesis committees and is member of the review panel of different synchrotrons since 2017.
In summary, Carlos’ scientific career has provided him with a strong multidisciplinary background which, combined with his collaborations, has enabled him to lead and contribute to various projects, resulting in high-impact scientific output.
Rosa Arrigo (WoS Researcher ID L-6676-2016) is lecturer in Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Salford in Manchester (UK) and honorary research scientist at the UK’ s synchrotron facility Diamond Light Source. Her research interests are focused on the design of innovative processes and nanostructured systems for decarbonization technologies in green chemistry and energy storage and conversion. Her research strategy consists of establishing molecular level structure-function relationships through the controlled synthesis of tailored materials, testing and thorough structural characterisation, including but not limited to the extensive use of innovative in situ synchrotron-based techniques such as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy. Current projects focus the conversion of carbon dioxide and H2 production. Recently, she is investigating the host/guest chemistry in metal-organic frameworks for the delivery of Aspergillus derived drugs and in CO2 capture.
Selected Publications of Relevance to Catalysis Science.
Dynamics at Polarized Carbon Dioxide–Iron Oxyhydroxide Interfaces Unveil the Origin of Multicarbon Product Formation, R. Arrigo, R. Blume, V. Streibel, C. Genovese, A. Roldan, M. E. Schuster, C. Ampelli, S. Perathoner, J. J. Velasco Vélez, M. Hävecker, A. Knop-Gericke, R. Schlögl, G. Centi , ACS Catal. 2022, 12, 1, 411–430
Elucidating the mechanism of the CO2 methanation reaction over Ni/hydrotalcite-derived catalysts via surface sensitive in situ XPS and NEXAFS, G. Giorgianni, C. Mebrahtu, M. E. Schuster, A. I. Large, G. Held, P. Ferrer, F. Venturini, D. Grinter, R. Palkovits, S. Perathoner, G. Centi, S. Abate, R. Arrigo, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2020, DOI: 10.1039/D0CP00622J.
Operando X-ray absorption fine structure study of the electrocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide over Ferrihydrite on nitrogen-doped carbon, C. Genovese, M. E. Schuster, E. K. Gibson, D. Gianolio, V. Posligua, R. Grau-Crespo, G. Cibin, P. P. Wells, D. Garai, V. Solokha, S. Krick Calderon, J. Velasco Velez, C. Ampelli, S. Perathoner, G. Held, G. Centi, R. Arrigo, Nat. Comms. 9, 2018, 935. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-03138-7.
In situ observation of reactive oxygen species forming on oxygen-evolving iridium surfaces, V. Pfeifer, T. E. Jones, J. J. Velasco Vélez, R. Arrigo, S. Piccinin, M. Hävecker, A. Knop-Gericke, R. Schlögl, Chem. Sci. 8, 2017, 2143-2149. DOI: 10.1039/C6SC04622C.
Recent Press Releases
“Take a Tour of the Diamond Light Source” in Chemistry world,
“Carbon Dioxide Conversion to Hydrocarbon: Thinking Big to See Small Things”, Nature Blog and "Beyond the Paper".
Carlo Marini studied at University of Roma “Sapienza” (Italy) where he defended the PhD in Physics in 2010. In the same year he joined the ESRF synchrotron of Grenoble (France) first as post-doc and then as junior scientist (2013) at the BM23 and ID24 beamlines. In February 2014 he joined ALBA synchrotron as second scientist at CLAESS beamline. Since 2023 he is beamline responsible of NOTOS. His scientific activity has been initially focused on the characterization of 3d metal functional materials and then it opened to the study of catalysis and in particular bimetallic nanoparticles, with a special interest to the interplay between structural and electronic properties shown by these systems. During his research, he developed a multi techniques approach which includes X ray absorption, X ray emission, X ray diffraction, Raman, Infrared, High Pressure and theoretical simulations. In 17 years of research, he produced more than 140 publications in international journals reaching a final H-index 30.
Peter Strasser is the chaired professor of �Electrochemistry for energy conversion and storage� at the Chemical Engineering Division of the Department of Chemistry at the Technical University of Berlin. Prior to his appointment, he was Professor at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Houston. Before moving to Houston, Prof. Strasser served as Senior Member of staff at Symyx Technologies, Inc., Santa Clara, USA. In 1999, Prof. Strasser earned his doctoral degree in Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry from the �Fritz-Haber-Institute� of the Max-Planck-Society, Berlin, Germany, under the direction of the 2007 Chemistry Nobel Laureate, Professor Gerhard Ertl. In the same year, he was awarded the �Otto-Hahn Research Medal� by the Max-Planck Society. In 1996, Dr. Strasser was visiting scientist with Sony Central Research, Yokohama, Japan. He studied chemistry at Stanford University, the University of Tuebingen, and the University of Pisa, Italy. Professor Strasser is interested in the fundamental Materials Science and Catalysis of electrified liquid solid interfaces, in particular for renewable energy conversion, energy storage, production of fuels and chemicals.