To support the development of innovations for the energy transition, the CNRS, École Normale Supérieure Lyon, IFPEN, Sorbonne University, Claude Bernard
Lyon 1 University and the University of Strasbourg have created a joint research laboratory (JRL). CARMEN is a five-year venture in which the partners are pooling their expertise and know-how in the field of the characterization of materials for new energies. The objective is to reinforce knowledge on molecular and/or colloidal transport in porous substrates and develop new methodologies for the detailed analysis of these materials.
The latter, like catalyst supports and soils, have numerous applications in the fields of catalytic biomass conversion, adsorbents for the reduction of contaminants and renewable energy storage. Their optimization for new energy technologies depends on the identification of the relationships between their structural and chemical properties, on the one hand, and their physicochemical properties (transport, mechanical resistance, etc.), on the other. The research conducted by the CARMEN JRL will thus focus on the multi-scale characterization of their structure in operating conditions as close to reality as possible -operando-, in order to relate them to their transport properties as well as their reactivity.
By bringing together three outstanding academic teams at sites in Lyon (the Very High Fields RMN Center), Paris (the PHENIX Physicochemistry of Electrolytes and Interfacial Nanosystems laboratory) and Strasbourg (Strasbourg Institute of Physics and Chemistry of Materials) with IFPEN teams, the CARMEN JRL forms a consortium that is unique in the world. In addition to the complementary nature of the assembled expertise, it will make it possible to pool high-performance equipment and mobilize numerous characterization techniques, including innovative operando approaches such as low field and high field NMR as well as imaging techniques combined with modeling.
Scientific contact: nathalie.schildknecht@ifpen.fr
