SEMINAR 2025
Disentangling kinetics and thermodynamics effects in nanomaterial synthesis
| Speaker | Damien Alloyeau, University of Paris Cité / CNRS |
| Date/Time | Tuesday, 22 Apr, 3pm |
| Location | S11-02-07 |
| Moderator | A/Prof Utkur Mirziyodovich Mirsaidov |
Abstract
The formation of nanomaterials by bottom-up synthesis is simultaneously driven by kinetic and thermodynamic effects, dictated by the adsorption rate of atoms and the structural stability of nanostructures in their environment, respectively. Fully understanding the competition between these two phenomena is a fundamental challenge for the development of new synthesis protocols that cannot be met without directly studying the nucleation and growth processes at the atomic scale. In this seminar, we will show how in situ transmission electron microscopy combined with atomistic simulations allow exploring the formation pathways of nanostructures, revealing their nanophase diagram and the many the out-of-equilibrium configurations that can be trapped by kinetic effects. These experimental and theoretical studies focus in particular on the nucleation mechanisms of ultra-small gold clusters, the shape-control of plasmonic nanostructures and the fabrication of high-entropy nanoalloys.
Biography
Damien Alloyeau is a CNRS director of research at the University of Paris-Cité. Following his PhD thesis on the thermodynamic properties of magnetic nanoalloys performed at the French Aerospace Lab (ONERA), he was hired as a postdoctoral fellow by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to develop phase-contrast imaging techniques at the National Center for Electron Microscopy. He joined the Materials and Quantum Phenomena laboratory as a permanent CNRS researcher in 2010. Since then, he has worked on the fabrication and the atomic-scale characterization of nanomaterials with the view to establish the links between their structure and their properties. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) still serves as a cornerstone of his research, particularly in situ investigations in liquid and gas environments to understand the dynamics of nano-objects in their formation and application media.
– Group leader of the MeANS team at the MPQ lab.
– Director of a national user facility for TEM at the University of Paris Cité.
– Director of the NANOPERANDO network at CNRS (2018-2022).