S. Villar-Rodil

My PhD was carried out in Carbon Science and Technology Institute (INCAR-CSIC) and supervised by Prof. J. M. D. Tascón and A. Martínez-Alonso from the Carbonaceous Materials group. It dealt with the preparation of carbon molecular sieves, that is, porous carbon materials with very uniform porosity, from polymeric fibers for the separation of gas mixtures of industrial interest. During this period, I specialized in the preparation and characterization of carbon materials, acquiring wide experience in the use and interpretation of many material characterization techniques. I also performed several stays in different foreign research institutions, such as the CNRS (France) and the Technical University of Wroclaw (Poland). In 2003, I got my PhD from the University of Oviedo, which was marked as summa cum laude and won the first prize from the Physical and Analytical Chemistry Department of the University of Oviedo as well as from the Chemists Association of my region. During the years 2004-2005, I carried out a post-doctoral stay in the UK, in the Physical Chemistry department of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, under the supervision of Prof. K. M. Thomas, which was devoted to the study of the kinetic isotope quantum effect in molecular sieves, reporting its first experimental observation. In 2005 I joined the CSIC as permanent staff first in the Institute of Polymer Science and Technology (ICTP-CSIC), and then from 2007, back in INCAR-CSIC. My research activity focuses on the development of scalable preparation and processing methods for graphene and other two-dimensional (2D) materials, investigating the potential of these 2D materials mainly in energy storage, and environmental applications, optimizing their performance, and taking advantage of the basic knowledge generated in parallel.