Javier Estarelles Nácher

The award to the best master’s degree final project award has been given to Javier Estarelles Nácher, who holds both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree on Chemical Engineering from the UV and who defended his master’s degree final project in the academic year of 2024-2025.

His project is titled “Fabricació de nanoelectrodes de WO3 en presència d’àcids carboxílics per al seu posterior ús energètic i mediambiental” (Fabrication of WO3 Nanoelectrodes in the Presence of Carboxylic Acids for Energy and Environmental Applications), and it was carried out under the supervision of the Department of Chemical Engineering professors Ramón Manuel Fernández Domene and Rita Sánchez Tovar, as well as Elanny Da Silva, a predoctoral researcher.

This master’s degree final project focuses on the design, synthesis and characterisation of WO3 nanostructures oriented towards optimising its electrochemical performance as an anode material. The project covers WO3 nanostructures extraction via electrochemical anodizing, paying close attention to the control of their functional properties through the modulation of the formation chemical environment. In particular, the influence of organic complexing agents incorporated into the electrolyte on the morphology, architecture, and surface properties of the resulting material is analysed, since these are key aspects for its behaviour regarding lithium-ion intercalation.

Thanks to this master’s degree final project, it has been possible to publish two articles in prestigious journals indexed in the first quartile of the Citation Reports (JCR-Q1):

• Elianny Da Silva, Javier Estarelles Nácher, Rut Sanchis, Vicenta González, Gemma Roselló-Márquez, Ramon Manuel Fernández-Domene, Rita Sánchez-Tovar and Benjamin Solsona. Engineering WO3 Nanostructures via Carboxylic Acid Anodization for Advanced Lithium-Ion Battery Anodes. Materials 18 (2025) 5602. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma18245602
• Elianny Da Silva, Javier Estarelles, Gemma Roselló-Márquez, Benjamín Solsona, Ramón M. Fernández-Domene, Rita Sánchez-Tovar. WO3 nanostructures for photoelectrocatalytic emerging pollutants degradation: influence of carboxylic acids on electrochemical anodization. Ceramics International 51 (2025) 58219-58233. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ceramint.2025.10.042

Attendees to the event: Rafael Magdalena Benedito, dean of the School of Engineering of the Universitat de València (ETSE-UV); Paula Marzal Doménech and José Torres País, co-directors of the POWERCO-UV Chair; Ángel Robles Martínez, deputy director of Institutional Relations, Equality and Culture of the ETSE-UV; and as per Power-Co: Andreas Huels, head of the Health, Safety and Environment Department; Lorena Rodrigo, head of the Corporative Communication and External Relations Department; and Lada Giniyatova, from the Talent Department.