Philippe Sautet

About

Professor Philippe Sautet studied at École Polytechnique in Paris and earned his doctorate in Theoretical Chemistry at Orsay University (Paris XI) in 1989. He initially worked at CNRS at the Institute of Research on Catalysis in Lyon, where he led a group focused on applying theoretical chemistry to heterogeneous catalysis. His career includes a sabbatical at Berkeley University and serving as the director of the laboratory of Chemistry at the ENS of Lyon for eight years, followed by his role as director of the Institut de Chimie de Lyon from 2007 to 2015. Currently, he is a Professor at UCLA, affiliated with the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. His research interests center on the electronic structure at the interface between solid surfaces and molecules, modeling elementary steps of heterogeneous catalysis, and the atomic-scale simulation of surfaces, which has garnered international recognition. He has published over 300 scientific papers, delivered more than 100 invited lectures, and holds an H-index of 61. His contributions have been recognized with numerous awards, including the silver medal of CNRS, the Paul Pascal Prize, and the Pierre Süe Grand Prize, and he was elected to the French Academy of Sciences in 2010. He has been honored as Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérite and Chevalier de l’ordre des palmes académiques for his research and teaching efforts. Additionally, he serves as an associate…

Research topics

• Chemistry
• Materials science
• Nanotechnology
• Physical chemistry
• Organic chemistry
• Chemical engineering
• Inorganic chemistry
• Computational chemistry
• Physics
• Thermodynamics

Selected publications

• A fundamental look at electrocatalytic sulfur reduction reaction

  Nature Catalysis · 2020 · 814 citations

  DOI

• Establishing reaction networks in the 16-electron sulfur reduction reaction

  Nature · 2024 · 504 citations

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Guidelines to Achieving High Selectivity for the Hydrogenation of α,β-Unsaturated Aldehydes with Bimetallic and Dilute Alloy Catalysts: A Review

  Chemical Reviews · 2020 · 263 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Selective hydrogenation of α,β-unsaturated aldehydes to unsaturated alcohols is a challenging class of reactions, yielding valuable intermediates for the production of pharmaceuticals, perfumes, and flavorings. On monometallic heterogeneous catalysts, the formation of the unsaturated alcohols is thermodynamically disfavored over the saturated aldehydes. Hence, new catalysts are required to achieve the desired selectivity. Herein, the literature of three major research areas in catalysis is integ…

  DOI

• Dual redox mediators accelerate the electrochemical kinetics of lithium-sulfur batteries

  Nature Communications · 2020 · 173 citations

  to and from sulfur intermediates respectively. After incorporating dual oxides, the electrochemical kinetics of sulfur cathode is significantly accelerated. This strategy, which couples a fast-electrochemical reaction with a spontaneous chemical reaction to bypass a slow-electrochemical reaction pathway, offers a solution to accelerate an electrochemical reaction, providing new perspectives for the development of high-energy battery systems.

  DOI

• Structure Sensitivity and Catalyst Restructuring for CO2 Electro-reduction on Copper

  Nature Communications · 2025-04-30 · 75 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract Cu is the most promising metal catalyst for CO 2 electroreduction (CO 2 RR) to multi-carbon products, yet the structure sensitivity of the reaction and the stability versus restructuring of the catalyst surface under reaction conditions remain controversial. Here, atomic scale simulations of surface energies and reaction pathway kinetics supported by experimental evidence unveil that CO 2 RR does not take place on perfect planar Cu(111) and Cu(100) surfaces but rather on steps or kinks.…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Understanding the restructuring of model metal catalysts in reactant gases

  NSF · $320k · 2018–2022

• Modeling electrocatalysts in operating conditions: Surface restructuring and catalytic activity

  NSF · $502k · 2021–2025

• NSF-DFG Echem: CAS: Electrochemical Pyrrolidone Synthesis: An Integrated Experimental and Theoretical Investigation of the Electrochemical Amination of Levulinic Acid (ElectroPyr)

  NSF · $355k · 2022–2025

Frequent coauthors

• Françoise Delbecq

  1218 shared

• David Loffreda

  Laboratoire de Chimie

  663 shared

• Carine Michel

  Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1

  500 shared

• Guylène Costentin

  Laboratoire de Réactivité de Surface

  266 shared

• Christophe Copéret

  263 shared

• Michel Che

  Sorbonne Université

  242 shared

• Céline Chizallet

  IFP Énergies nouvelles

  232 shared

• Stephan N. Steinmann

  Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1

  231 shared

Awards & honors

• Silver medal of the CNRS (2007)
• Paul Pascal Prize of the French Academy of Science (2008)
• Pierre Süe Grand Prize of the French Chemical Society (2012)
• Member of the French Academy of Sciences (2010)
• Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérite

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