Dynamics of Confined and Chemically Reactive Fluids

The performance of modern fuel cells and electrolyzers is controlled by complex dynamics of chemical solutions undergoing diffusion and chemical reactions on the surface of porous materials.

These systems are fascinating since many physical processes spanning from bubble nucleation to transport across porous materials occur at the same time and in an highly out-of-equilibrium environment.

Understanding the dynamics of such complex systems leads to two main outcomes:

improve the performance fuel cells and electrolyzers can significantly boost the energy transition that we are facing

provide insight into fundamental questions about the physics of out of equilibrium systems

Within my team we aim at a theoretical description of fuel cells/electrolyzers as well as confined chemical reactors in general. We pursuit these objective by a melange of techniques. Tailored molecular dynamics and Lattice Boltzmann simulations are used to tackle the microscopic details, whereas we approach the mesoscopic scale with analytical models. When needed, hybrid numerical/analytical approaches and machine learning tools are developed.