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My research focuses on the development of new environmentally friendly technologies for energy production and conversion. The research span from a fundamental understanding in Quantum Matter and Quantum Electronics to application like Solar Cell and Wind Turbines. 

Additive Manufacturing of Metals

In ABB Corporate Research Center, I am leading a project on the development of permanent magnets by using 3D Printing and SPS sintering for electrical devices that generate and consume electricity.  

Quantum Matter & Quantum Electronics

Thermo-Electrics Cells

Thermoelectrics materials have a peculiar property to harvest waste heat and convert it into electricity.  They could have a crucial role in improving vehicle and power plant efficiency by incorporating thermoelectric cells in the exhaust system and turbine systems, respectively. The efficiency of this process is characterized by a dimensionless quantity called a figure of merit, ZT. The main challenge is to find material with ZT higher than 1 in order to be suitable for industrial purposes.

 Thermo-Electrical Properties of Anatase TiO2

Titanium dioxide has become a very important material in various applications nowadays. Its great advantage is that Titanium is the 9th most abundant element on the Earth, so products based on it are relatively inexpensive. Since the early 70s it has been famous for its photo-catalytic characteristics and its popularity has tremendously increased by the invention of the dye-sensitized photovoltaic solar cell, also called a Graetzel cell. In this application, the attractive feature is that the extraction of the photo-generated charges happens via TiO2 nanoparticles. This material was considered as a candidate for memory devices- memristors, which operation is based on high, reversible resistivity change upon a voltage pulse. This logic element would be a two-terminal device (in contrast to the three-terminal MOSFETs) which would allow lower energy consumption and simpler architecture for integrated circuits. The major disadvantage was a lack of understanding of the fundamental characteristics necessary for the improvement of the device's efficiency.

 During my Ph.D. studies in the group of Prof. Laszlo Forro at EPFL, I discovered the large polaronic nature of the charge carriers in anatase TiO2 and that electron-phonon interaction determines electrical transport.

Contact Materials for DC Circuit Breakers

Low voltage electrical contact composite materials based on Ag matrix have been used for 70 years in applications such as circuit breakers, contactors, and relays. However, those which were the best are not environmentally optimal.  A major issue for circuit-breaking technology nowadays is to find the best environmentally friendly material to be dispersed in the silver matrix in order to prevent the welding of two otherwise pure Ag plates.

In the division of Dr. Enrico Giannini on the project between Secheron SA and Quantum materials group at the University of Geneva, I developed a new environmentally friendly composite material for High Current DC circuit breakers used in the railway industry.