Pierre-Alexandre

I am Physical-chemist with strong background in material science. I have experience in metal-oxides material synthesis through electrochemical anodization, for solar energy conversion applications, in particular for hydrogen production through photoelectrochemical water splitting. I also have experience in chemical doping of semi-conductors for tuning of their optical properties. In addition, I have also developed metal nanoparticles synthesis routes for photonic and electrocatalytic applications. I have used a wide range of material characterization techniques such as SEM, TEM, XRD, XPS, FTIR, UV-vis, TGA, to fully understand their physical and chemical properties. Finally, I have developed test setup protocols for measuring the performance of materials towards solar energy conversion. This included photocurrent and IPCE measurements as well as gas production measurements using micro-Gas Chromatography (µGC).

During my postdoc at Stanford and as Co-founder of my startup company, I have acquired skills in micro and nanofabrication techniques such as Si wafer treatment, polymers spin-coating, photolithography and e-beam evaporation in cleanroom environment. I have developed CAD designs of chemical gas sensors for the detection of airborne molecules using Cyclic Voltammetry (CV) measurements. I have also helped developing doping processes for conducting polymer membranes and designed and fabricated test setups for the evaluating the performance (detection limit, response times, on/off cycles) of chemical gas sensors. The manufacturing of these gas sensors was achieved using screen-printing of metallic pastes on flexible membrane substrates. Finally, I have collaborated on the development of code and interfaces for operating gas sensors in conjunction with other environmental sensors and calibration data using Python.

In terms of production of intellectual properties, I have published three journal articles on my PhD work, two on my postdoc work, and I have obtained three patents as primary inventor on the chemical gas sensing technology I developed.My career development is focused on the development of technologies that help create a cleaner world by leveraging my experience in experimental physics and chemistry.