Benedikt Lassalle
Biography - Benedikt Lassalle
Synchrotron SOLEIL, Gif-sur-Yvette, France & USIAS Fellow, Institute of Physics and Chemistry of Materials of Strasbourg (IPCMS), University of Strasbourg and CNRS, France
Benedikt Lassalle obtained his PhD from the Paris-Sud University under the supervision of Ally Aukauloo and Élodie Anxolabéhère. He worked on the synthesis and characterization of molecular, manganese complexes, as biomimetic models of Photosystem II. He was particularly interested in the preparation of high valence manganese complexes and their reactivity towards the O-O bond formation. In 2009, he joined the group of Junko Yano and Vittal Yachandra at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the United States, where he trained in X-ray spectroscopy. He participated in numerous synchrotron and Free electron laser experiments, with the aim of understanding the electronic structure of Photosystem II and related biomimetic manganese complexes. During this period, he also collaborated with a number of groups in the United States and Europe, using X-ray spectroscopy to determine the structure of electrocatalytic materials for the water splitting reaction.
Since 2014, he is a beamline scientist at the LUCIA beamline of Synchrotron SOLEIL, where he develops and uses X-ray spectroscopy to study electrocatalysts under operating conditions. He is particularly interested in inorganic materials for the hydrogen evolution reaction and for transition metal macrocycles for the reduction of carbon dioxide into chemical building blocks.
In 2015, he set up the microfluidic laboratory in Synchrotron SOLEIL, which he directs and whose aim is to combine microfluidic systems with synchrotron techniques, in order to follow (bio-)chemical reactions under in situ conditions and with time resolution. For this purpose, he develops fast micromixers to investigate interactions between biomolecules or the synthesis of nanomaterials for energy applications.
During his Fellowship, Benedikt Lassalle will be hosted by Professor Ovidiu Ersen at the Institute of Physics and Chemistry of Materials of Strasbourg (IPCMS).
Project - Microfluidics, X-rays and electrons: an integrated toolbox for the in situ study of hybrid perovskites synthesis
01/11/2022 - 31/10/2024
The synthesis of nanomaterials proceeds following several reaction pathways, leading to products with a variety of shapes and properties. Controlling their morphologies and chemical composition is essential to adapt their performances to the needs of their applications. Their electronic properties or their robustness can thus be modulated according to the desired application. Controlling their synthesis is, however, a difficult task, which requires a fine understanding of the possible reaction pathways and the conditions that favour them. We are proposing to develop a method, based on X-ray spectroscopy and electron microscopy, which will make it possible to observe the different reaction pathways that exist amongst a nanomaterial synthesis reaction. To this end, we will use microfluidic systems, which allow a precise control of mass transport phenomena and introduce a temporal dimension to the in situ collection of spectroscopy and microscopy data.
Our first studies will focus on hybrid perovskites, which are promising materials for light capture and conversion applications, such as photovoltaics. These materials can adopt various structures, depending on the components and the process used for their synthesis. We will use in situ X-ray spectroscopy and electron microscopy to study their synthesis under microfluidic conditions to map out the reaction landscape and orient it towards the desired structure.
