The Lille RPE site honored with the 200th CNRS LabCom

On November 29 and 30, 2021, the CNRS celebrated, during an event organized at the Palais Brongniart in Paris, the signing of its 200e LabCom1 active, bringing together the Spectroscopy Laboratory for Interactions, Reactivity and the Environment (Lasire), RPE site of Infranalytics, and the TotalEnergies group. Focus on this collaboration which, with the Labcom IC2MC linking Total with the COBRA, FT-ICR site in Rouen, strengthens our links with TotalEnergies upstream of the global contract which will be signed by Infranalytics with this large group.

« We have a long-standing relationship of trust with the CNRS, which is a strategic partner for our growth in new energies and on the themes of sustainable development. says Marie-Noëlle Semeria, director of R&D at TotalEnergies. It is to get to the heart of matter in these low-carbon energies that the company will launch, at the end of November, the Electronic Magnetic Resonance Center for Materials and Energy (CR2ME) located in Lille. This joint laboratory with the Spectroscopy Laboratory for Interactions, Reactivity and the Environment (Lasire), its partner for ten years, will characterize from a chemical point of view new, more durable materials applied to the energy sector. 'energy.

At the heart of this collaboration: unique expertise in electronic paramagnetic resonance (EPR). " This technique makes it possible to study unpaired electrons, that is to say which begin to move freely within a material, and which are markers of its aging and its degradation. “, explains Hervé Vezin, director of Lasire. "Benefiting from Lasire's unique expertise in RPE is an important differentiating factor for us, which reinforces our approach to innovation in renewable energies and electricity. », Raises Marie-Noëlle Semeria. EPR will thus be used to improve the reliability and safety of all-solid-state batteries14 dedicated to electric vehicles – a technology at the heart of developments by Saft, a subsidiary of the company TotalEnergies. But it will also be used to study the aging of solar panels, to recycle plastics or to manufacture biofuels for aviation. The joint laboratory, which will last four years, will rely on a team of around fifteen people. " In addition, thanks to funding under the Chemact Region State Plan Contract for the Hauts-de-France region, we will have a new instrument from 2022: a 263 GHz EPR spectrometer. This will allow even more precise analyzes of the chemical species present in a sample, thus better understanding the aging of materials in order to manufacture new, more efficient ones. This equipment, unique in France and only the third in the world, will be a major asset in keeping one step ahead “says Hervé Vezin.

1 The players involved in a Labcom together steer research framed by a roadmap lasting 3 to 5 years. They share human, financial and material means to solve the same scientific challenge in a stable and renewable framework.