PhD students
Adeline Delvaux obtained her master in Chemical and Materials Engineering at Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium) in 2014. Since then, she is working under the supervision of Prof. Joris Proost on the hydrogen production by water electrolysis with the view to replace actual energy sources by cleaner ones. The goal of her research consists in improving the electrochemical cell efficiency by tailoring nickel electrodes in order to favor gas bubble detachment and then reduce the overpotential due to mass transport. This is done by depositing Al-Ni alloys by magnetron co-sputtering, and then by chemically treating these alloys in a concentrated hydroxide solution with the aim of leaching out the Al. Another aspect of her research focus on the electro-activation of nickel electrodes by hydrogen absorption. It consists in studying the hydriding mechanisms of Ni thin film electrodes into aqueous medium as well as characterize their internal stresses and microstructure effects as a function of their processing conditions since they influence kinetics and thermodynamics of hydriding.
Raphaël Poulain is graduated from INP-Grenoble with a major in electrochemistry in 2011 and from Mines ParisTech from the O.S.E. specialized master degree in 2013. Now under the supervision of Professor Joris Proost, Raphaël Poulain focus is research on the electrocatalytic properties of nickel oxide and its application in silicon based photo-electrolyzer. The PhD program is carried out in the frame of the EJD-FunMAT European program.
Nicolas Piret holds a Master degree in Chemical Sciences from the University of Namur (Belgium), obtained in 2011 with a master thesis about the use of ionic liquids during the self-assembled monolayers creation process on polycrystalline copper substrates. Since 2011, he works at the Technovation Centre of AGC Glass Europe, the European R&D centre based in Gosselies. As a research assistant for AGC, he started a PhD thesis in October, 2015 under the supervision of Professor Joris Proost from UCL, in the frame of a collaboration between AGC and UCL. The goal of this PhD thesis is the fundamental study of the glass etching and frosting process happening during matt glass production.
Senior scientists, Postdoctoral researchers
Quentin de Radiguès is working in the field of the energy transition. In order to increase the share of renewable energies, new ways of storing electricity have to be developed. Hydrogen has the advantage to be able to store energy over a long time while it can be used as fuel for vehicles. In his Ph.D. thesis on Process Intensification in electrochemical reactors defended in december 2016, he has developed a new technology to reduced the cost of alcaline water electrolysis for hydrogen production. He is now applying this technology on a pilot plant scale.