Salvador Eslava

Dr Eslava currently leads a group on novel synthesis approaches for (photo)electrochemical and (photo)catalytic materials, including transition metal oxides, halide perovskites, oxide perovskites, and graphene derivatives. He and his group carry out physicochemical and electrochemical characterisation of these materials to relate their properties to their application on energy conversion and storage and pollutants remediation, as well as on their scale up and development. His research is multidisciplinary, extending the limits and synergies between chemical engineering, chemistry, and materials science. He has published more than 62 research articles in leading journals such as Energy & Environ. Sci., J. Mater. Chem. A or Nature Commun. He has been awarded funding from The Royal Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry, EPSRC and Innovate UK. His team's most significant contributions to the literature are:

• Developed halide perovskite composites with graphene for photocatalytic conversion of CO2 with water vapor (ACS Appl. Energy Mater. 2020 and J. Mater. Chem. A 2021)
• Developed the use of stable halide perovskite CsPbBr3 based photoanodes for oxygen evolution in aqueous electrolytes (Nature Comm. 2019)
• Unravelled the role of CoFeOx oxygen evolution catalyst and thickness dependence on Fe2O3 photoanodes (Energy Environ. Sci. 2018).
• Revealed greener and more efficient routes for the preparation of hematite and TiO2 photoanodes for solar water splitting (ACS Appl. Energy Mater. 2019, Sust. Energy Fuels 2018, J. Power Sources 2018, J. Mater. Chem. A 2017, and RSC Advances 2017)
• Discovered the use of graphene oxide as a sacrificial support to replicate its 2D shape on TiO2 photocatalysts for H2 production (J. Mater. Chem. A 2016) and CeO2 catalysts and supports (Appl. Catal. B Environ. 2018)
• Revealed the properties of complex cellular networks formed by the assembly of chemically modified graphene (Nature Comm. 2014) and upscaled graphene oxide for 3D printing graphene structures (Adv. Mater. 2015)
• Revealed the insulator properties of metal-organic framework ZIF-8 films for microelectronics (Chem. Mater. 2013)
• Discovered synthesis routes for heterometallic titanium clusters (Chem. Commun. 2010, Inorg. Chem. 2011) and their deposition for photochemical applications (Chem. Mater. 2010)
• Revealed that spin-coated zeolite films contain large voids detrimental for their application as insulator in microelectronics (Adv. Mater. 2008)
• Developed different approaches to optimise zeolite films, such as UV photochemistry (JACS 2007), silylation (Langmuir 2008), and zeolitic sol-gel process (JACS 2008 and Adv. Funct. Mater. 2008)

Summary

• 2022-date Reader in Applied Energy Materials and EPSRC Fellow, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, UK
• 2019-2022 EPRSRC Early Career Fellow and Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, UK
• 2014-2019 Lecturer, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, University of Bath, UK
• 2011-2014 Postdoctoral research associate, Dept. of Materials, Imperial College London, UK. Working with Prof. E. Saiz
• 2009-2011 Postdoctoral research associate, Dept. Chemistry, University of Cambridge, UK. Working with Profs DS.. Wright and R.M. Lambert
• 2005-2009 PhD, Centre for Surface Chemistry and Catalysis (COK), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, and IMEC, Belgium. Working with Profs K. Maex, C.E.A. Kirschhock, and J.A. Martens
• 2004 Taught Master in Materials Science for Nanotechnologies, Università degli Studi di Pavia, Italy
• 1998-2003 MEng in Chemical Engineering, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain