Abstract
In the past decade, atomically engineered nanomaterials with different sizes and exposed facets have been proven to be excellent model systems to advance catalytic studies. Colloidal chemistry is one of the most powerful wet-chemistry techniques to tailor-make nanomaterials, thus making colloidal nanocrystals an ideal playground to investigate structural and compositional reaction sensitivities but also to study degradation pathways.
In this talk, I will first give an overview on the group efforts in the synthetic development of novel compositions of nanocrystals, including multinary metal oxides and heterostructures combining domains of different chemical nature (1-3). I will then focus on our more recent studies directed towards advancing the knowledge in electrochemical CO2 reduction wherein the rules of design for active, selective and stable catalysts are still mostly lacking (4,5).
(1) I. Luz, A. Loiudice, D.T. Sun. W. L. Queen, R. Buonsanti Chem. Mater. 2016, 28, 3839
(2) A. Loiudice, S. Saris, E. Oveisi, D.T.L. Alexander, R. Buonsanti Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2017, 56, 10696
(3) C. Gadiyar, M. Strach, P. Schouwink, A. Loiudice, R. Buonsanti Chem. Sci. 2018, 9, 5658
(4) A. Loiudice, P. Lobaccaro, E.A. Kamali, T. Thao, B.H. Huang, J.W. Ager, R. Buonsanti Angew. Chemie. Int. Ed. 2016, 55, 5789
(5) J. Huang, N. Hörmann, E. Oveisi, A. Loiudice, G. De Gregorio, O. Andreussi, N. Marzari, R. Buonsanti Nature Commun. 2018, 9, 3117
Biography Prof. Raffaella Buonsanti
Raffaella Buonsanti has been a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering at EPFL since October 2015. She graduate in Nanochemistry at the National Nanotechnology Laboratory, University of Salento (Italy, 2006-2010, with Prof. Davide Cozzoli) followed by a postdoc at the Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (United States, 2010-2012, with Prof. Delia Milliron). After one year as a project scientist in the same institution (United States, 2012-2013), Raffaella was a tenure-track Staff Scientist in the Department of Materials Science within the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (United States, 2013-2015), before moving to EPFL. Here, through her core expertise in colloidal synthesis, she develops novel approaches to complex materials to drive chemical transformations, with particular emphasis on energy-related reactions such as CO2 reduction and water oxidation.
