sophiecarenco

July 25-29, 2022: Sol-gel International Conference

This conference was held in Lyon and gathered a broad community around sol-gel but also materials design, thin films and coatings etc. Léna presented her work on lanthanide oxysulfide thin film design while I was invited to give a broad overview of our recent works. Check the program.

With: Léna, Sophie

6-month post-doc position opening

There is an opening to join the group as a post-doctoral fellow or a research engineer fellow, from December 2022 or early 2023. This innovation project deals with the fabrication of polysiloxanes containing graphite.

The candidate should have hands-on experience with air-sensitive molecular species, and ideally be familiar with the preparation of potassium graphite. He/she should have a background in molecular chemistry, polymer chemistry or materials science.

Job description here.

June 21-22, 2022: Workshop Carmen Evolution

I was invited to contribute to this prospective workshop organized by CARMEN, a joint laboratory about materials characterization and the energy transition. A fascinating variety of talks from contributors in several topics! Science and strategy were discussed together by academic and industrial players: check the program.

May 30-June 3, 2022: FCCat conference

This week, we are a this international conference that nicely mixes homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis communities... a great opportunity for us, standing at the frontier with our colloidal catalysis projects! Anthony and I will be presenting recent results of the team.

With: Anthony, Sophie

Another accepted paper: Ni₃C nanocatalysts for colloidal hydrogenation

In this work, we investigated the potential of well-defined hcp nickel carbide nanoparticles as hydrogenation catalyst for a range of chemical moities. We also looked at the effects of solvent polarity and the presence of water on the conversion. The full story here.

With: Rémi, Léna, Sophie

Paper accepted: Phase-controlled NiCo nanoparticles

We all know that nanoparticles synthesis is a tricky job, especially when dealing with bimetallic air-sensitive compositions. Here, we investigated in details the role of many parameters for the preparation of core-shell NiCo nanoparticles presenting the sole fcc phase. Read the paper.

With: Alberto, Cyprien, Alexy, Anthony, Sophie

March 14-18, 2022: CatEnerChem School

This week, I am attending this interdisciplinary school as a member of the organization comittee. We will learn about five key molecules for the catalysis and energy challenges, hearing from chemists and also colleagues from social sciences. Anthony and Cyprien will present posters as participants. Follow us here.

With: Cyprien, Anthony, Sophie

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Make them safer

It's a small step for the world of nanoparticles, but a big step for our beloved oxysulfides nanoplates: in this work, we propose to evaluate, in a very preliminary approach, some of the interactions of the nanoparticles with macrophage cells. We turned on the lamp (visible light) and monitored the impact in the production of radicals. Read for yourself.

Did you say NanoFLP?

We have been proposing for a while to use metal nanoparticles as partners in Frustrated Lewis Pairs. Now, we found that nickel-cobalt nanoparticles associated to well-chosen phosphines likely form such a pair, based on the correlation between Si-H bond activation and the Tolman cone angle of the phosphine: only a tiny range of steric hindrance is suitable, and it is related to the silane bulkiness. We believe we nailed it. Make your own opinion.

Molybdenum mapped out

Molybdenum is a key element of the energy transition. X-ray absortion spectroscopy at the L-edge is an amazing way to analyze it in solids, liquids, composites, etc. Here, we wrote some simple guidelines to interpret the data and we provided a consistent series of spectra for well-known, and less-know, Mo compounds. Read our map.

Green deal on nanocarbides

Here is a dream reaction: no solvent, no waste (except salt), no heat input. Check out how we produced a variety of metal carbide nanoparticles supported on graphite or acetylene black. We also discuss secondary formation of hydrides, metals and oxides using a simple adiabatic approximation.

Water matters

We revisited copper nanoparticles synthesis and showed that, depending on the precursor, the amount of water produced in situ is slightly different. This is enough to modulate the catalytic processes that consume the solvent and reducing agent of the reaction: oleylamine. Read how and why.

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