logo nano spa 1
  • Cabecera 1
    nanoscience and nanotechnology: small is different

Nanoarchitectures at surfaces

  • Prof. David Écija

    Position: Senior Research Prof.
    PhD: Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain
    Previous Position: Technical University of Munich, Germany
    Research: Nanoarchitectures on Surfaces
    ORCID: 0000-0002-8661-8295
    Researcher ID: I-2207-2012
    Group webpage: Nanoarchitectonics on Surfaces
    Joining Date: January, 2014
    User Name: david.ecija
    Telephone: +34 91 299 88 55
    Écija

    Prof. David Écija is an expert in condensed matter physics, surface and molecular nanoscience. He received a PhD degree in Physics from UAM, with a work on self-assembly of nanostructures on surfaces. He was awarded a Marie Curie Intra European Fellowship and moved to Prof. Barth ́s group at the Technical University of Munich, where he carried out a four-year stay working on functional molecular nanoarchitectures on surfaces. In January 2014 he joined IMDEA Nanociencia as Researcher and “Ramon y Cajal” fellow to develop nanomaterials on surfaces. Notably, he is the recipient of the ERC 2018 Consolidator Grant (ELECNANO). Since May 2019, he is Research Professor at IMDEA Nanociencia (tenured).

    Research Lines

    Our group is focused on the visualization and understanding of physico-chemical processes on surfaces, including three main lines of research: 

    • Design of surface-confined metal-organic materials. Our main interest is to rationalize the coordination chemistry of functional metals on surfaces, creating unique architectures with advanced functionalities for sensing, catalysis, light emission, nanomagnetism and quantum information.  
    • On-surface synthesis of functional nanomaterials. We focus on the exploration of unprecedented chemical reactions aiming at the design of novel 1D or 2D soft materials, envisioning impact in optoelectronics, carbon magnetism and quantum information.
    • Nanocatalysts for energy applications. We pursue the on-surface design and atomistic characterization of metal-oxide, metal-organic or purely organic nanocatalysts of relevance for energy related applications, like water splitting or CO2 reduction.