Past Projects

Objective: Stablishing a database of devices for the production of solar fuels. 

Role: Team member populating the database and providing feedback on how to operate and analyze the collected data.

Principal Investigator: Prof. Sophia Haussener (EPFL) and Dr. Isaac Holmes-Gentle (EPFL)

Associated products:

• https://solarfuelsdb.epfl.ch

Objective: to produce carbon-based composite materials for use in supercapacitors using waste product from oil refineries. 

Role: Researcher in charge of drafting the proposal,  synthesis and testing of the materials.

Principal Investigator: Prof. Jorge Andres Calderon (Universidad de Antioquia)

Associated publications:

• Facile transformation of heavy oil residues into carbon composites used for high-performance supercapacitors

Objective: Development of electrochemical systems for energy storage from intermittent renewable sources

Role: Postdoctoral researcher developing materials to be used as cathodes for Li-ion batteries and development of electrochemical methods for determination of charge transfer efficiency in photoelectrodes.

Principal Investigators: Prof. Jorge Andres Calderon (Universidad de Antioquia)

Associated publications:

• Stable V-doped LiMnPO4/C cathode material for Li-ion batteries produced by a fast and facile microwave-assisted synthesis

• Enhancement of Anodically Treated Stainless Steel by NiFeP-Catalyst Electrodeposition as Bifunctional Electrodes for Water Electrolysis

• Determination of photon-driven charge transfer efficiency: Drawbacks, accuracy and precision of different methods using Hematite as case of study

• Capacity fading of high specific capacity spinel LixMn2-yTiyO4 as cathode material for Li-ion batteries

• Electrochemical techniques for photoelectrode characterisation

Objective: Developing photoelectrochemical materials and devices for dense energy carriers (solar fuels) production

Role: Postdoctoral researcher studying: the performance of different photoelectrode materials (e.g. Cu2O, Fe2O3). The effect of the use of different substrates and operating conditions were assessed for the production of hydrogen fuel. The development and refinement of techniques for electrode characterization, include the determination of flat band potentials. And, modelling at device level of the performance  of photoelectrochemical reactors. 

Principal Investigator: Prof. Geoff Kelsall (Imperial College London)

Associated publications:

• En route to a unified model for photoelectrochemical reactor optimization. II - Geometric optimization of perforated photoelectrodes

• Flat band potential determination: avoiding the pitfalls

Objective: Understanding the behaviour of speciation of Pb within deep euthetic solvents, as well as the effects of secondary cations and electrode poisoning. Designing and building a number electrochemical cells (from bench-top to pilot plant prototype), that will replace the smelting steps in the current high temperature process. 

Role: Postdoctoral researcher studying the dissolution, speciation and electrodepostion of lead in dimethylbutylammonium methanesulfonate [DMBA][MS] ionic liquid .

Principal Investigator: Dr. D.J. Payne (Imperial College London)

Supervisor: Prof. Geoff Kelsall (Imperial College London)

Associated publications:

• Evaluation of N,N-dimethylbutylammonium methanesulfonate ionic liquid for electrochemical recovery of lead from lead-acid batteries

Objective: Studying the performance of tin-doped hematite photoanodes for hydrogen production using photo assisted electrolysis of water and hydrogen sulfide in photoelectrochemical reactors.

Role: Graduate researcher (PhD student) 

Supervisor: Prof. Geoff Kelsall (Imperial College London) and Dr. Anna Hankin (Imperial College London)

Associated publications:

• Hydrogen sulfide splitting using solar energy and hematite photo-anodes

• In situ determination of polysulfides in alkaline hydrogen sulfide solutions

• En route to a unified model for photo-electrochemical reactor optimisation. I - Photocurrent and H2 yield predictions

• Effects of low temperature annealing on the photo-electrochemical performance of tin-doped hematite photo-anodes

• From millimetres to metres: the critical role of current density distributions in photo-electrochemical reactor design

• Photo-electrochemical hydrogen sulfide splitting using Sn-doped hematite photo-anodes

Objective: Studying the degradation of organic coatings applied to galvanized steel to be used in electrical transmission towers.

Role: Graduate researcher (MSc student) developing electrochemical techniques for the study of organic coatings tested under accelerated conditions. 

Principal Investigator: Prof. Felix Echeverria (Universidad de Antioquia)

Supervisor: Prof. Jorge Andres Calderon (Universidad de Antioquia)

Associated publications:

• Effectiveness of non-Fickian diffusion model on the water uptake determination of different organic coatings

• Electrochemical impedance study for modeling the anticorrosive performance of coatings based on accelerated tests and outdoor exposures

• New strategy to assess the performance of organic coatings during ultraviolet-condensation weathering tests