Advanced nanoparticles and methodologies
Last picnic on the campus for the team. It was great to host Paul for Julia Zaikina’s group (Iowa, USA), and our master students : Timothé from ENS Lyon, and Mihai from Gröningen university. Farewell to Paul back in the US (but continuing collaboration) and Mihai who will start his PhD in Loredana Protesescu’s group at Gröningen Uni. Hopefully new things coming on boron-based nanomaterials. Timothé continues in the team as PhD student.
Great recognition for Paul Oftedahl from Julia Zaikina’s group at Iowa State University, who received the best poster award at the 23rd International Symposium on Boron, Borides and Related Materials, Riversides (CA), for the work that he performed in collaboration with our team. Paul stayed in our Paris team for 6 months and developed electrocatalytic studies on borides. We are thankful for the French Ambassy in the USA for granting a Chateaubriand fellowship to Paul to make his stay possible.
We have a new doctor from the team! Congratulations Natalia for the very nice defense and the challenging work. Again a great at the interface of chemistry and high-pressure physics co-supervised with my colleague Yann Le Godec.
Exciting work on CO electrochemical volarization into high-added value molecules, from Hong Phong Duong, PhD ! Thanks to Prof. Marc Fontecave and TRAN Ngoc Huan at Collège de France for bringing me in.
Incorporation of isolated Ag atoms and Au nanoparticles in copper nitride for selective CO electroreduction to multicarbon alcohols, H. P. Duong, J. G. Rivera de la Cruz, D. Portehault, A. Zitolo, J. Louis, S. Zanna, Q. Arnoux, M. W. Schreiber, N. Menguy, N.-H. Tran, M. Fontecave, Nature Materials, 10.1038/s41563-025-02153-6
We have looking for Ph.D. candidates and a postdoctoral fellow! If interested, please contact david.portehault[at]sorbonne-universite.fr :
Open position for a doctoral school application:
Open position, already funded, for materials discovery assisted by artificial intelligence, in the frame of PEPR-DIADEM MADNESS project:
We are looking for candidates willing to engage in an application for an MSCA fellowship. The team has experience in such applications (successful application in 2024 for an incoming postdoctoral fellow), and sorbonne University provides close support and training for the application (details here and here ):
The first paper of Carlos on hydrofluxes is out! These original solvents, at the edge of water and molten salts, promise many discoveries for crystallization and materials discovery in the future. Stay tuned!
Crystallization of Manganese(V) Oxides by Hydroflux Synthesis: Control of Anisotropic Growth and Electrochemical Stability, C. V. M. Inocêncio, A. Torres-Pardo, D. Montero, L. Roach, P.-O. Autran, C. Sassoye, C. Aymonier, A. Varela, M. Parras, C. Laberty-Robert, D. Portehault*, Inorganic Chemistry, 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.4c05439
Our own Carlos is leaving the team after 2 years! Wishing him nice discoveries in his new postdoc stay @Marc Fontecave’s group at Collège de France!
The work of Fernando on the isomorphic synthesis of boron carbide nanocrystals and their processing into superhard materials is now published in ACS Nano. A fruitful and friendly collaboration with Yann Le Godec from IMPMC – Sorbonne University
Transforming Nanocrystals into Superhard Boron Carbide Nanostructures, F. Igoa Saldaña, T. Gaudisson, S. Le Floch, B. Baptiste, L. Delbes, V. Malarewicz, O. Beyssac, K. Béneut, C. Coelho Diogo, C. Gervais, G. Rousse, K. Rasim, Y. Grin, A. Maître, Y. Le Godec*, D. Portehault*, ACS Nano, 10.1021/acsnano.4c08599
In a study led by Glenna Drisko and M. A. Parker at ICMCB, we designed a redox pathway involving a silicon Zintl phase and a custom-made silicon complex to fabricate size-controlled silicon particles. Anissa contributed significantly to the ‘Zintl’ part during her Ph.D.
Unveiling the Potential of Redox Chemistry to Form Size-Tunable, High-Index Silicon Particles, M. A. Parker, S. Khaddad, N. Fares, A. Ghoridi, D. Portehault, S. Bonhommeau, Y. Amarouchene, P. Rosa, M. Gonidec, G. L Drisko, Chemisty of Materials, (2024)
A great achievement by Daniel during his Ph.D. work: We unveil a path in molten salts to transition metal silicoborides through structural transformations driven by boron-based covalent bonds. Specific charge transfer between atoms provide guidelines to design corrosion-resistant and Earth-abundant water oxidation electrocatalysts. Among a range of methods, we made extensive use of synchrotron-based in situ XRD in molten salts.
Covalent Transition Metal Borosilicides: Reaction Pathways in Molten Salts for Water Oxidation Electrocatalysis, D. Janisch, F. Igoa Saldaña, E. De Rolland Dalon, C. VM Inocêncio, Y. Song, P.-O. Autran, A. Miche, S. Casale, D. Portehault, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 146, 21824 (2024)