PhD (M/F) in Optical control of electrocatalytic reaction mechanism for renewable energy storage

The Candidates: We look for a very motivated candidate interested in working in a highly collaborative environment. The candidates should have basic knowledge and a desire to deepen their understanding in the fields of materials science, photonics, and electrochemistry/ photo-electrochemistry as well as crystallography and ultrafast spectroscopy. They should be familiar and interested in using various experimental techniques such as spectroscopy (optical or X-ray) and X-ray diffraction. It is desirable for candidates to be acquainted with data processing programs (such as Python or similar) and be interested in developing experiments at large scale facilities such as Synchrotrons and XFELs.

Our department: The candidate will be working at the CNRS and specifically associated to the Materials and Light Department at the Institute of Physics of Rennes. We are a highly collaborative and international team with more than 20 researchers working in the areas of ultrafast spectroscopy, crystallography and energy conversion. Our research facilities include 4 ultrafast lasers, 2 diffraction spectrometers, sample deposition equipment as well as electrochemical capabilities. Our group has received funding by the ERC, the ANR or Rennes Metropole and the Department leads the CNRS international lab DYNACOM in partnership with the University of Tokyo.
Link to website: https://ipr.univ-rennes.fr/en/materials-and-light-departement

The electrification of fossil- fuel based processes in industry and transport requires new materials that can store and transduce electrical energy. Electrocatalytic and (photo)electrocatalytic materials offer a great opportunity to generate renewable fuels and chemicals. However, enhancing the efficiency and selectivity of (photo)electrochemical reactions remains a big challenge. For example, there is a lot of interest in converting CO2 into valuable chemical like methanol. However, the available catalysts are often unselective and many products are obtained at the same time, significantly hindering industrial applicability One of the key problems stems from the difficulty of characterising and controlling the catalytic interface under working conditions. This thesis will develop new tools to control catalytic reactions on demand.

In the last decades there has been incredible progress in the development laser sources that can be used to manipulate matter on demand. For example, it has been shown that selective optical excitations can generate technologically relevant phases like superconducting -like state which could revolutionise electronics. So far, this approach has only been intensively explored to control quantum materials and its application to catalysis remains unexplored. Yet, optical control could revolutionise the way catalysis is performed. One exciting opportunity could be to use targeted light pulses to control the steps in the catalytic cycle and therefore tune the selectivity of reactions on demand.

This PhD project is at the interface between condense matter physics and electrochemistry and will develop and implement optical control strategies to control reaction mechanisms on demand. Such reactions include the reduction of CO2 or the splitting of water to generate H2. This thesis will rely on electrochemical, crystallography and time-resolved spectroscopy equipment available in Rennes. Moroeover, It is likely that we will request experimental time at large scale facilities facilities, particularly synchrotrons and X-ray free-electron lasers.

Relevant literature includes: (2) https://www.nature.com/articles/nphys2055; (2) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41578-022-00433-0 ; (3) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41570-024-00575-5, (4) https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.2695 (6) https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/jacs.9b09056