He obtained his Ph.D. in chemistry in 1990 at the same university, working under the supervision of Dr. L. Gonza ´lez Tejuca and Prof. J. L. G. Fierro at the Institute of Catalysis and Petrochemistry (CSIC). From 1990 to 1993, he was working under contract in a project of oxidative coupling of methane funded by REPSOL (the largest Spanish oil and petrochemisty company). At the end of this period, he got a staff position of researcher in the Institute of Catalysis and Petrochemisty, that is his current status. In 1996−1997, he was a Visiting Scholar in the group of Prof. A. Varma, at the University of Notre Dame (USA). He has been the Head of the Department of Sturcture and Reactivity of the Institute of Catalysis and Petrochemistry since 1998. His research interests are focused mainly in catalytic processes for clean energy production, specifically in catalytic applications of perovskite oxides (Ph.D. dissertation), natural gas conversion, catalytic combustion, C 1 chemistry, catalyic membrane reactors, hydrogen production, and fuel cell catalysts. He has published 30 papers and 3 patents and made 22 presentations at symposia and conferences.

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The design of active and durable catalysts for the H 2 O/O 2 interconversion is one of the major challenges of electrocatalysis for renewable energy. The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is catalyzed by SrRuO 3 with low potentials (ca. 1.35 V RHE ), but the catalyst’s durability is insufficient. Here we show that Na doping enhances both activity and durability in acid media. DFT reveals that whereas SrRuO 3 binds reaction intermediates too strongly, Na doping of ~0.125 leads to nearly optimal OER activity. Na doping increases the oxidation state of Ru, thereby displacing positively O p-band and Ru d-band centers, weakening Ru-adsorbate bonds. The enhanced durability of Na-doped perovskites is concomitant with the stabilization of Ru centers with slightly higher oxidation states, higher dissolution potentials, lower surface energy and less distorted RuO 6 octahedra. These results illustrate how high OER activity and durability can be simultaneously engineered by chemical doping of perovskites.

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Pt and Au are not miscible within a whole range of concentrations. To obtain PtAu alloys, severe thermal treatments are required that to provide aggregation phenomena. However, it is possible to synthesize bimetallic PtAu nanoparticles provided the proper synthesis route is employed. When they are prepared from water-in-oil microemulsions or with the impregnation technique, it is possible to obtain nanosized bimetallic PtAu particles. In contrast, other colloidal routes have been seen to be adequate for the synthesis of other bimetallic Pt-based particles, affording segregated samples with Pt- or Au-enriched zones. When alloyed, bimetallic PtAu nanoparticles display unique physicochemical properties that are different from those of monometallic and nonalloyed solids. Thus, the performance of alloyed PtAu samples as electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction is superior to that of the PtAu-segregated samples. In fact, the ability of carbon-supported bimetallic PtAu samples in the oxygen reduction reactions equals or even surpasses that of archetypal Pt/C electrocatalysts.

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