# Patrice Simon

Patrice Simon (born 1969) is a French chemist in the field of materials science and electrochemistry. He is currently a Distinguished Professor at the Université de Toulouse (former Université Toulouse III Paul Sabatier) since 2007. His research group focuses on the synthesis and characterization of materials for electrochemical energy storage applications, including electrochemical capacitors (supercapacitors) and high-power batteries.
He currently serves as Director of the RS2E. Together with H. Burlet (CEA), he leads the PEPR Batteries initiative. Previously, he served as Director of the European Research Institute "ALISTORE ERI".
Patrice Simon is Fellow of the French Academy of Sciences, of the French Academy of Technologies. He was also appointed as Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences and Academia Europaea.

## Biography

Simon studied at École Nationale Supérieure des Ingénieurs en Arts Chimiques et Technologiques (ENSIACET) in Toulouse, graduating with M.S. in metallurgy (1992) and Ph.D. in Materials science (1996). Thereafter he worked as assistant professor of Electrochemistry at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers in Paris, and from 2001 at the CIRIMAT laboratory of materials science, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse. He received his D.Sc. from Université Paul Sabatier in 2002 and was appointed full Professor of Materials Sciences at CIRIMAT in 2007. He was promoted as Distinguished Professor in 2014.

## Research contributions

Supercapacitors are energy storage devices that have similar form factors to batteries, but offer higher power and a longer cycle life. A type of supercapacitors, called Electrochemical Double Layer Capacitors (EDLCs), use high surface area porous carbon as active materials. In these devices, charge storage is achieved electrostatically under polarization at the electrolyte / carbon interface, by reversible adsorption of ions from an electrolyte onto the carbon surface. Together with Prof Yury Gogotsi (Drexel university, USA), he demonstrated that ions from an electrolyte could partially desolvate to access small size nanopores (thought to be un-accessible) in porous carbon electrodes (Science 2006). His research may results in advances in commercial products. Modelling approaches were developed in collaboration with theoreticians to describe ion dynamics and organization in confined pores. He experimentally evidenced the concept of ion desolvation using advanced electrochemical techniques, such as Electrochemical Quartz Crystal Microbalance (EQCM).
The concept of ion desolvation during adsorption and charge storage capacity increase has also been shown in reduced graphene oxide electrode (rGO), pointing out the key role of the spontaneous interactions between the carbon surface and the electrolyte, that can be described by the zeta potential or its counterpart the potential of zero charge (PZC) in the process.
The confinement effect and its associated capacity increase was also observed in 2-Dimmensional (2D) materials such as MXene, that store the charge by fast redox reactions, making the concept of charge under confinement of key importance for designing fast charge materials for high power batteries.

## Awards and honours
### 2024

Highly Cited Researcher 2024

### 2023

Highly Cited Researcher 2023

### 2022

Highly Cited Researcher 2022

### 2021

Highly Cited Researcher 2021

### 2020

Member of the European Academy of Sciences
Highly Cited Researcher 2020

### 2019

Member of the French Academy of Sciences
Honorary professorship in Beijing University of Chemical Technology
Highly Cited Researcher 2019
Member of Academia Europaea
Grand Prix Pierre Süe

### 2018

Member of the French Academy of Technologies
Clarivate Citation Laureates
Highly Cited Researcher 2018
Brian Conway Award of the International Society of Electrochemistry

### 2017

Senior Member of the Institut Universitaire de France

### 2016

Fellow of the International Society of Electrochemistry
Highly Cited Researcher 2016
Lee Hsun Lecture Award on Materials Science, Chinese Academy of Science
Fellow of the International Society of Electrochemistry

### 2015

Silver Medal of the CNRS
RUSNANOPRIZE Prize on Nanotechnologies
Charles Eichner Medal from French Materials and Metallurgy Society (SF2M)

### 2012

European Research Council Advanced Grant
Excellence Chair of the Airbus group Fondation

### 2009

Tajima Prize of the International Society of Electrochemistry

### 2007

Junior Member of the Institut Universitaire de France