Staff GIQA Chemical and Environmental Engineering Group

Carlos joined the Chemical and Environmental Engineering Group at URJC as a Postdoctoral fellow through the Atracción de Talento (Modalidad 2) fellowship. He received his Bachelor and Masters degree from Universidad de Santiago de Compostela (USC) and Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM). Carlos was granted a European Commission FP7 funded PhD at University College London (UCL) to develop advanced photocatalytic materials for water remediation applications. Immediately after finishing his PhD, he started his Postdoctoral research career at UCL as part of EPSRC and Innovate UK projects on anode and cathode materials for energy storage applications. This position involved working with industrial partners, such as Honda R&D Europe (Germany) GmbH, Ilika plc., Ricardo plc. Centres for Process Innovation (CPI), etc.
Carlos is member of the Royal Society of Chemistry (MRSC) and the Solar Fuels Network community. His research has resulted in 24 publications, including a majority of high-impact peer-reviewed journals and it has been presented in 14 national and international conferences. Finally, his scientific career has been complemented with teaching experience by leading undergraduate tutorials in basic inorganic chemistry, as well as co-supervising 4 MSc students.

A hybrid reactor for solar CO2 and N2 conversion coupled to wastewater treatment (HYSOLCHEM)
Funding : European Commission, H2020 FET Proactive (GA 101017928)
Start / End Years : 2021 - 2023
URL : http://hysolchem.eu
Principal Investigator : Marugán Aguado, Javier
Research Team : - Alvarez Fernández, Carmen - Casado Merino, Cintia - Collado Brunete, Laura - Dufour Andía, Javier - Martín Gamboa, Mario - Martínez del Monte, Daniel - Marugán Aguado, Javier - Sotelo Vázquez, Carlos
Summary : The development of light-driven technologies represents a RADICAL NEW WAY for the conversion and storage of renewable energy. The Project focuses on the successful development of a new concept of low-cost flow photo-reactor prototype for the reduction of CO2 and N2 to produce fuels and chemicals (CH4, C2H4, C3H6 and NH3) coupled to the oxidation of microplastics and organic pollutants from wastewater treatment plants. In order to reach these ambitious objectives, HySolChem investigates CO2 valorisation strategies, artificial photosynthesis, N2 fixation and degradation of water pollutants. The validation of the prototype is in a wastewater treatment plant and a study of the developed materials and devices from a life-cycle environmental, economic and social point of view is also carried out.

Anisotropic Electron Transport Limits Performance of Bi2WO6 Photoanodes

B. Moss, H. Le, S. Corgy, K. Morita, S. Selim, C. Sotelo-Vazquez, Y. Chen, A. Borthwick, A. Wilson, C. Blackman, J.R. Durrant, A. Walsh, A. Kafizas

The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 124, 18859-18867 (2020)
doi:10.1021/acs.jpcc.0c03539

Iron-Intercalated Zirconium Diselenide Thin Films from the Low-Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition of [Fe(?5-C5H4Se)2Zr(?5-C5H5)2]2

C. Sanchez-Perez, C.E. Knapp, R.H. Colman, C. Sotelo-Vazquez, S. Sathasivam, R. Oilunkaniemi, R.S. Laitinen, C.J. Carmalt

ACS Omega, 26, 15799-15804 (2020)
doi:10.1021/acsomega.0c00413

Enhanced Photocatalytic and Antibacterial Ability of Cu-Doped Anatase TiO2 Thin Films: Theory and Experiment

A.M. Alotaibi, B.A. D. Williamson, S. Sathasivam, A. Kafizas, M. Alqahtani, C. Sotelo-Vazquez, J. Buckeridge, J. Wu, S.P. Nair, D.O. Scanlon, I.P. Parkin

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 12(13), 15348-15361 (2020)
doi:10.1021/acsami.9b22056

Multiple difusion pathways in LixNi0.77Co0.14Al0.09º2 (NCA) Li-ion battery cathodes

T.E. Ashton, P.J. Baker, D. bauer, A.R. Groves, C. Sotelo-Vazquez, T. kamiyama, T. Matsukawa, K.M. Kojima, J.A. Darr

Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 8, 11545 (2020)
doi:10.1039/D0TA03809A

Chemical Vapor Deposition of Photocatalytically Active Pure Brookite TiO2 Thin Films

A.M. Alotaibi, S. Sathasivam, B.A. D. Williamson, A. Kafizas, C. Sotelo-Vazquez, A. Taylor, D.O. Scanlon, I.P. Parkin

Chemistry of Materials, 4, 1353-1361 (2018)
doi:10.1021/acs.chemmater.7b04944

Interstitial boron-doped anatase TiO2 thin-films on optical fibres: atmospheric pressure-plasma enhanced chemical vapopur deposition as the key for functional oxide coatings on temperature-sensitive substrates

M. Quesada-Gonzalez, K. Baba, C. Sotelo-Vazquez, P. Choquet, C.J. Carmalt, I.P. Parkin, N.D. Boscher

Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 5, 10836-10842 (2017)
doi:10.1039/C7TA02029E

Correlation of optical properties, electronic structure, and photocatalytic activity in nanostructured tungsten oxide

M. Ling, C.S. Blackman, R.G. Palgrave, C. Sotelo-Vazquez, A. Kafizas, I.P. Parkin

Advanced Materials Interfaces, 18, 1700064 (2017)
doi:10.1002/admi.201700064

On the apparent visible-light and enhanced UV-light photocatalytic activity of nitrogen-doped TiO2 thin films

C. Sotelo-Vazquez, M. Quesada-Gonzalez, E. Pulido Melian, N. Chadwick, I.P. Parkin, R. Quesada-Cabrera

Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology A: Chemistry, 333, 49-55 (2017)
doi:10.1016/j.jphotochem.2016.10.013

Evidence and Effect of Photogenerated Charge Carrier Transfer for Enhanced Photocatalysis in WO3/TiO2 Heterojunction Films: A Computational and Experimental Study

C. Sotelo-Vazquez, R. Quesada-Cabrera, M. Ling, D.O. Scanlon, A. Kafizas, P. Kumar Thakur, T-L. Lee, A. Taylor, G.W. Watson, R.G. Palgrave, J.R. Durrant, C.S. Blackman, I.P. Parkin

Advanced Functional Materials, 18, 1605413 (2017)
doi:10.1002/adfm.201605413

Photo-induced enhanced Raman spectroscopy for universal ultra-trace detection of explosives, pollutants and biomolecules

S. Ben-Jaber, W.J. Peveler, R. Quesada-Cabrera, E. Cortes, C. Sotelo-Vazquez, N. Abdul-Karim, S.A. Maier, I.P. Parkin

Nature Communications, 1, 1-6 (2016)
doi:10.1038/ncomms12189

Multifunctional P-Doped TiO2 Films: A New Approach to Self-Cleaning, Transparent Conducting Oxide Materials

C. Sotelo-Vazquez, N. Noor, A. Kafizas, R. Quesada-Cabrera, D.O. Scanlon, A. Taylor, J.R. Durrant, I.P. Parkin

Chemistry of Materials, 9, 3234-3242 (2015)
doi:10.1021/cm504734a