Nicolas Dubouis

TotalEnergies

Insertion compounds provide the fundamental basis of today’s commercialized Li-ion batteries. Throughout history, intense research has focused on the design of stellar electrodes mainly relying on layered oxides or sulfides, and leaving aside the corresponding halides because of solubility issues. This is no longer true. In this work, we show the f...

Highly concentrated electrolytes were recently proposed to improve the performances of aqueous electrochemical systems by delaying the water splitting and increasing the operating voltage for battery applications. While advances were made regarding their implementation in practical devices, debate exists regarding the physical origin for the delaye...

Two-dimensional (2D) layered magnetic materials are generating a great amount of interest for the next generation of electronic devices thanks to their remarkable properties associated with spin dynamics. The recently discovered layered VI3 ferromagnetic phase belongs to this family, although a full understanding of its properties is limited by the...

This thesis aims at understanding the role of the electrolyte, and more specifically the role of solvation structures, for electrochemical storage applications. First, this manuscript reviews the most recent advances on the comprehension on the role of the water molecule for the generation of hydrogen in electrolyzers. Then, we set up a strategy, w...

Highly concentrated electrolytes were recently proposed to improve the performances of aqueous electrochemical systems by delaying the water splitting and increasing the operating voltage for battery applications. While advances were made regarding their implementation in practical devices, debate exists regarding the physical origin for the delaye...

Two-dimensional (2D) layered magnetic materials are generating a great amount of interest for the next generation of electronic devices thanks to their remarkable properties associated to spin dynamics. The recently discovered layered VI$_3$ ferromagnetic phase belongs to this family, although a full understanding of its properties is limited by an...

Insertion compounds provide the fundamental basis of today’s commercialized Li-ion batteries. Throughout history, intense research has focus on the design of stellar electrodes mainly relying on layered oxides or sulfides, and leaving aside the corresponding halides because of solubility issues. This is no longer true. In this work, we show for the...

p>Aqueous biphasic systems (ABS) can form when mixing water with two compounds such as polymers, ionic-liquids or simple salts. While this phenomenon has been known for decades and found applications in various fields such as biology, recycling or even more recently electrochemistry, the physics behind the formation of ABSs remains ill-understood....

In this study, the effect of flow of the electrolyte on an electrolysis cell and a zinc cell is investigated. The gain of energy brought by the flow is discussed and compared to the viscous losses in the cells. We point out that the balance between the gained electrical power and the viscous loss power is positive only if the hydrodynamic resistanc...

The recent discovery of “water-in-salt” electrolytes has spurred a rebirth of research on aqueous batteries. Most of the attention has been focused on the formulation of salts enabling the electrochemical window to be expanded as much as possible, well beyond the 1.23 V allowed by thermodynamics in water. This approach has led to critical successes...

The growing hydrogen economy requires accelerating the hydrogen evolution reaction. The water dissociation step (Volmer step) has been proposed as a main kinetic limitation, but the mechanisms at play in the electrochemical double-layer are poorly understood. This is due to the dual role of water: it acts both as a reactant and as a solvent. Here w...

Recent studies have revealed the critical role played by the electrolyte composition on the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) kinetics on the surface of highly active catalysts. While numerous works were devoted to understand the effect of the electrolyte composition on the physical properties of catalysts’ surface, very little is known yet about its...

p>The growing hydrogen-economy requires accelerating the hydrogen evolution reaction. The water dissociation step (Volmer step) has been proposed as a main kinetic limitation, but the mechanisms at play in the electrochemical double-layer are poorly understood. This is due to the ambivalent role of water: it acts both as a reactant and as a solvent...

The production of sustainable hydrogen with water electrolyzers is envisaged as one of the most promising way to match the continuously growing demand for renewable electricity storage. While so far regarded as fast when compared to the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) regained interests in the last few years o...

Hydrogen production technologies have attracted intensive attention for their potential to cope with future challenges related to renewable energy storage and conversion. However, the significant kinetic barriers associated with the oxygen evolution reac-tion (OER), one of the two half reactions at the heart of water electrolysis, greatly hinder th...

Aqueous biphasic systems (ABSs), in which two aqueous phases with different compositions coexist as separate liquids, were first reported more than a century ago with polymer solutions. Recent observations of ABS forming from concentrated mixtures of inorganic salts and ionic liquids raise the fundamental question of how "different" the components...

Recently, Ir(V)‐based perovskite‐like materials were proposed as oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts in acidic media with promising performance. However, iridium dissolution and surface reconstruction were observed, questioning the real active sites on the surface of these catalysts. In this work, Sr2MIr(V)O6 (M = Fe, Co) and Sr2Fe0.5Ir0.5(V)...

Recently, Ir(V)‐based perovskite‐like materials were proposed as oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts in acidic media with promising performance. However, iridium dissolution and surface reconstruction were observed, questioning the real active sites on the surface of these catalysts. In this work, Sr2MIr(V)O6 (M = Fe, Co) and Sr2Fe0.5Ir0.5(V)...

i>Aqueous Biphasic Systems (ABS), in which two aqueous phases with different compositions coexist as separate liquids, have first been reported over a century ago with polymer solutions. Recent observations of ABS forming from concentrated mixtures of inorganic salts and ionic liquids raise the fundamental question of how "different" the components...

The water reduction which produces hydrogen is one key reaction for electrochemical energy storage. While it has been widely studied in traditional aqueous electrolytes for water splitting (electrolyzers), it also plays an important role for batteries. Indeed, the reduction of water at relatively high potential prevents the practical realization of...

Aqueous Li-ion batteries have long been envisioned as safe and green energy storage technology, but have never commercially realized owing to the limited electrochemical stability window of water, which drastically hampers their energy density. Recently, Water-in-Salt electrolytes (WiSEs) in which a large amount of organic salts is dissolved into w...

The water reduction which produces hydrogen is one key reaction for electrochemical energy storage. While it has been widely studied in traditional aqueous electrolytes for water splitting (electrolyzers), it also plays an important role for batteries. Indeed, the reduction of water at relatively high potential prevents the practical realization of...

The parasitic reactions associated with reduced oxygen species and the difficulty in achieving the high theoretical capacity have been major issues plaguing development of practical nonaqueous Li-O2 batteries. We hereby address the above issues by exploring the synergistic effect of 2,5-di-tert-butyl-1,4-benzoquinone and H2O on the oxygen chemistry...

The parasitic reactions associated with reduced oxygen species and the difficulty in achieving the high theoretical capacity have been major issues plaguing development of practical non-aqueous Li-O2 batteries. We hereby address the above issues by exploring the synergistic effect of 2,5-di-tert-butyl-1,4- benzoquinone and H2O on the oxygen chemist...

The parasitic reactions associated with reduced oxygen species and the difficulty in achieving the high theoretical capacity have been major issues plaguing development of practical nonaqueous Li-O2 batteries. We hereby address the above issues by exploring the synergistic effect of 2,5-di-tert-butyl-1,4-benzoquinone and H2O on the oxygen chemistry...

Crystalline and amorphous transition metal chalcogenides such as MoS2 are currently recognized as state-of-the-art non-precious transition metal catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Nevertheless, despite numerous studies dedicated to their electrocatalytic activities, the exact nature of the active sites as well as their interaction...