Kevin Sivula

Professor
Kevin Sivula
Kevin Sivula in 2012
Born1979 (age 46–47)
Minnesota, USA
CitizenshipUSA
AwardsWerner Prize
Air Liquide Essential Small Molecules Award
Prix Zeno Karl Schindler
Academic background
EducationChemical engineering, University of Minnesota
University of California, Berkeley
Thesis[ProQuest 304901162 Controlling the morphology of solution-processed bulk heterojunction photovoltaics] (2007)
Academic work
DisciplineChemical engineering
Sub-discipline
Molecular engineering
InstitutionsEPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne)
Main interests
Photoelectrochemistry
Organic semiconductors
2D semiconductors
Solar energy conversion
Nanomaterials
Websitehttps://www.epfl.ch/labs/limno/

Kevin Sivula (born 1979 in Minnesota, USA) is a highly cited American chemical engineer and researcher in the field of solar cells. He is a professor of molecular engineering at EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) and the head of the Laboratory for Molecular Engineering of Optoelectronic Nanomaterials at EPFL's School of Basic Sciences.

Career

Sivula studied at the University of Minnesota and obtained a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering in 2002. He completed a doctorate with a thesis on "Controlling the morphology of solution-processed bulk heterojunction photovoltaics" in 2007 at the University of California, Berkeley under the direction of Jean Fréchet.

He then joined Michael Grätzel's group at EPFL as a postdoctoral researcher and investigated photo-electrochemical processes of water splitting.

In 2011, he became tenure track assistant professor and began an independent research program at EPFL's Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering. In 2018, he was promoted to associate professor of chemical engineering, and in 2024 he was promoted to full professor. He directs the Laboratory for Molecular Engineering of Optoelectronic Nanomaterials and teaches courses in transport phenomena, chemical product design, and solar energy conversion. He is currently serving as the Director of the Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering at EPFL.

Research

Sivula's research is dedicated to the understanding and engineering of charge transport and transfer in novel and inexpensive optoelectronic materials, in particular for solar energy conversion. The development of economical and robust semiconducting materials that can be processed by rapid roll-to-roll techniques into high-performance devices represents a significant challenge and is crucial to enabling low-cost global-scale solar energy conversion. Therefore, his research is directed towards understanding composition, crystallinity, self-assembly, and morphology in key systems in order to control the electronic band gap, light absorption, charge transfer, and carrier transport in thin film semiconductors to enable advance device performance. He contributed important research advances in three main areas: Semiconductors for solar-fuel production, understanding and controlling charge transport in thin film organic semiconductors, and solution processing and self-assembly of 2D-semiconductors.

His research was featured on Photonics, Nano Werk, Swiss nation TV RTS, Reuters, Clean Technica, and Futura Sciences.

Distinctions

Sivula is the recipient of the 2017 Werner Prize by the Swiss Chemical Society Werner Prize, the 2016 Air Liquide Essential Small Molecules Award, the 2011 Prix Zeno Karl Schindler, and the 2007 Graduate Student Gold Award by the Materials Research Society.

He is a member of the American Chemical Society and the Swiss Chemical Society.

In 2020, Clarivate ranked him among the 1000 most highly cited researchers.

Selected works

References

  1. 1 2 "13 new professors appointed at ETH Zurich and EPFL | ETH-Board". www.ethrat.ch. Retrieved 2021-04-09.[dead link]
  2. ↑ "People". www.epfl.ch. Retrieved 2021-04-09.
  3. 1 2 "kevin sivula's Publons profile". publons.com. Retrieved 2021-04-12.
  4. ↑ Sivula, Kevin Andrew (2007). Controlling the morphology of solution-processed bulk heterojunction photovoltaics (Thesis). ProQuest 304901162.[non-primary source needed][page needed]
  5. ↑ Sivula, K.; Ball, Z. T.; Watanabe, N.; Fréchet, J. M. J. (2006-01-19). "Amphiphilic Diblock Copolymer Compatibilizers and Their Effect on the Morphology and Performance of Polythiophene:Fullerene Solar". Advanced Materials. 18 (2): 206–210. doi:10.1002/adma.200501787. S2CID 93864898.[non-primary source needed]
  6. ↑ Sivula, Kevin; Luscombe, Christine K.; Thompson, Barry C.; Fréchet, Jean M. J. (November 2006). "Enhancing the Thermal Stability of Polythiophene:Fullerene Solar Cells by Decreasing Effective Polymer Regioregularity". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 128 (43): 13988–13989. doi:10.1021/ja064434r. PMID 17061856.[non-primary source needed]
  7. ↑ Sivula, Kevin; Zboril, Radek; Le Formal, Florian; Robert, Rosa; Weidenkaff, Anke; Tucek, Jiri; Frydrych, Jiri; Grätzel, Michael (2010-06-02). "Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting with Mesoporous Hematite Prepared by a Solution-Based Colloidal Approach". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 132 (21): 7436–7444. doi:10.1021/ja101564f. PMID 20443599.[non-primary source needed]
  8. ↑ Brillet, Jeremie; Yum, Jun-Ho; Cornuz, Maurin; Hisatomi, Takashi; Solarska, Renata; Augustynski, Jan; Graetzel, Michael; Sivula, Kevin (2012-11-11). "Highly efficient water splitting by a dual-absorber tandem cell". Nature Photonics. 6 (12): 824–828. Bibcode:2012NaPho...6..824B. doi:10.1038/nphoton.2012.265. S2CID 122196272.[non-primary source needed]
  9. ↑ Sivula, Kevin; Formal, Florian Le; Grätzel, Michael (2009-07-14). "WO 3 −Fe 2 O 3 Photoanodes for Water Splitting: A Host Scaffold, Guest Absorber Approach". Chemistry of Materials. 21 (13): 2862–2867. doi:10.1021/cm900565a.[non-primary source needed]
  10. ↑ "18 new professors at the ETH Zurich and the EPFL | ETH-Board". www.ethrat.ch. Archived from the original on 2021-06-23. Retrieved 2021-04-09.
  11. ↑ "Teaching". www.epfl.ch. Retrieved 2021-04-09.
  12. 1 2 Bornoz, Pauline; Prévot, Mathieu S.; Yu, Xiaoyun; Guijarro, Néstor; Sivula, Kevin (2015-12-16). "Direct Light-Driven Water Oxidation by a Ladder-Type Conjugated Polymer Photoanode". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 137 (49): 15338–15341. doi:10.1021/jacs.5b05724. PMC 4683565. PMID 26576469.[non-primary source needed]
  13. ↑ Guijarro, Néstor; Prévot, Mathieu S.; Yu, Xiaoyun; Jeanbourquin, Xavier A.; Bornoz, Pauline; Bourée, Wiktor; Johnson, Melissa; Le Formal, Florian; Sivula, Kevin (2016-04-01). "A Bottom-Up Approach toward All-Solution-Processed High-Efficiency Cu(In,Ga)S 2 Photocathodes for Solar Water Splitting". Advanced Energy Materials. 6 (7) 1501949. doi:10.1002/aenm.201501949. S2CID 101267676.[non-primary source needed]
  14. ↑ Prévot, Mathieu S.; Guijarro, Néstor; Sivula, Kevin (2015-04-24). "Enhancing the Performance of a Robust Sol-Gel-Processed p-Type Delafossite CuFeO 2 Photocathode for Solar Water Reduction". ChemSusChem. 8 (8): 1359–1367. doi:10.1002/cssc.201403146. PMID 25572288.[non-primary source needed]
  15. ↑ Zhu, Xiaodi; Guijarro, Néstor; Liu, Yongpeng; Schouwink, Pascal; Wells, Rebekah A.; Le Formal, Florian; Sun, Song; Gao, Chen; Sivula, Kevin (2018-08-01). "Spinel Structural Disorder Influences Solar-Water-Splitting Performance of ZnFe 2 O 4 Nanorod Photoanodes". Advanced Materials. 30 (34) 1801612. doi:10.1002/adma.201801612. PMID 29975805. S2CID 49655585.[non-primary source needed]
  16. ↑ Yu, Xiaoyun; Prévot, Mathieu S.; Guijarro, Néstor; Sivula, Kevin (November 2015). "Self-assembled 2D WSe2 thin films for photoelectrochemical hydrogen production". Nature Communications. 6 (1): 7596. Bibcode:2015NatCo...6.7596Y. doi:10.1038/ncomms8596. PMC 4506493. PMID 26126745.[non-primary source needed]
  17. ↑ Yao, Liang; Guijarro, Néstor; Boudoire, Florent; Liu, Yongpeng; Rahmanudin, Aiman; Wells, Rebekah A.; Sekar, Arvindh; Cho, Han-Hee; Yum, Jun-Ho; Le Formal, Florian; Sivula, Kevin (2020-04-29). "Establishing Stability in Organic Semiconductor Photocathodes for Solar Hydrogen Production". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 142 (17): 7795–7802. doi:10.1021/jacs.0c00126. PMID 32270679. S2CID 215605282.[non-primary source needed]
  18. ↑ "Supercheap Hydrogen Recipe: Sunlight + Water + Rust". www.photonics.com. Retrieved 2021-04-09.
  19. ↑ "Self-assembled 2D materials for cheaper solar energy storage". Nanowerk. Retrieved 2021-04-09.
  20. ↑ "L'EPFL développe une solution "low cost" pour produire de l'hydrogène". rts.ch (in French). 2012-11-11. Retrieved 2021-04-09.
  21. ↑ "Renewable energy storage gets boost from Namibian meteorite". Reuters.
  22. ↑ Casey, Tina (2015-08-20). "The Lowdown on Solar, Hydrogen and Power-to-Gas". CleanTechnica. Retrieved 2021-04-09.
  23. ↑ Futura, Delphine Bossy. "Stockage de l'énergie solaire: de rouille et d'eau". Futura (in French). Retrieved 2021-04-09.
  24. ↑ "Awards: Werner Prize". Swiss Chemical Society. Archived from the original on 2022-01-20. Retrieved 2021-04-09.
  25. ↑ "First Air Liquide Awards on Essential Small Molecules: K. Sivula, S.Kitagawa, R. Matsuda, J.-M. Savéant, M. Robert, and C. Costentin / Wolf Prize in Chemistry: R. G. Bergman / Swiss Chemical Society Awards: K. Sivula, C. Sparr, and R. R. Knowles / Knighthood: S. Balasubramanian / Wheeler Bequest Award: J. I. Seeman". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 56 (10): 2539–2540. 1 March 2017. doi:10.1002/anie.201700844. PMID 28185395.
  26. ↑ "Producing hydrogen from water and solar energy". Air Liquide. 2018-07-10. Retrieved 2021-04-09.
  27. ↑ "EPFL Prize". www.zenokarlschindler-foundation.ch. Retrieved 2021-04-09.
  28. ↑ "Past Recipients | MRS Graduate Student Awards". www.mrs.org. Retrieved 2021-04-09.
  29. ↑ "CV – Prof. Kevin SIVULA" (PDF).
  30. ↑ "Home". Swiss Chemical Society. Retrieved 2021-04-09.