Chalcogenide Materials for Energy Conversion: Pathways to Oxygen and Hydrogen Reactions

Introduction.- Fuel Cell Electrocatalysis.- Environmental Catalysis.- Precious Versus Non-Precious Electrocatalyst Centers.- Effect of Supports on Catalytic Centers.- Micro-Fuel Cells.- Outlook.

Dr. Nicolas Alonso-Vante is professor of chemistry, doing research at the IC2MP laboratory at the University of Poitiers. Dr. Alonso-Vante holds a Docteur Troisième Cycle, in electrochemistry, and a Doctorat d’Etat in Physical Science from the University of Strasbourg, France, and a Master in Physical-Chemistry from the Research Center for Advanced Studies in Mexico City. Prior to join the University of Poitiers in 1997, Prof. Alonso-Vante worked as a senior scientist at the Hahn-Meitner-Institut-Berlin (now Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin) in Germany, doing research in photoelectrochemical system for 13 years. He has developed materials in the nanodivided scale based on transition metal and chalcogenides in metallic and semiconducting form in Germany and France for over more than three decades. Using facile chemical routes, he has pioneered the use of non-platinum and non-precious metal catalysts center chalcogenides in order to understand the complex process of the oxygen reduction reaction process, an important technological reaction in low temperature fuel cells. Other interests of such materials in combination with light harvesting are devoted to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, and photocatalysis. Prof. Alonso-Vante’s other main research interests are (Photo) electrochemistry and (Photo) electrocatalysis of novel materials using various ex-situ and in-situ techniques, fuel generation, interfacial characterization and surface analytical techniques. He is the author of over 200 publications, book chapters, editor of a two-volume e-book on electrochemistry in Spanish and holds 2 US, 2 German, and 2 French patents. He has received the awards of the National Polytechnic Institute-Mexico as a R&D distinguished graduate, and of the Mexican Council of Technology SNI-III recognition as a Mexican researcher working outside Mexico, and has been awarded the NM Emanuel Medal from the Russian Academy of Science. He is also a member of the International Society of Electrochemistry, the Electrochemical Society, the Bunsengesellschaft für Physikalische Chemie, and of the International Academy of Electrochemical Energy Science (IAOEES) and member of the Editorial board of Fuel Cells Journal.