Advancing the hydrogen economy
Dr. Guillaume Hachet receives Humboldt scholarship
Dr. Guillaume Hachet has been awarded a research scholarship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, enabling him to continue his work as a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Sustainable Materials (MPI SusMat). His research is centered on combating hydrogen embrittlement—a significant challenge in the transition to a hydrogen-based economy—by examining its effects at the atomic level and developing materials resistant against hydrogen embrittlement.
"Hydrogen is crucial for achieving a zero-carbon future, but it poses risks to transport and storage infrastructure due to embrittlement," explains Hachet. " Interstitial solutes like boron or carbon, when present in the material, can help to prevent the hydrogen-driven decohesion of interfaces . Our first goal is to pinpoint the location of hydrogen at atom scale and to understand how interstitial solutes could form a protective barrier against hydrogen embrittlement. Hydrogen being invisible with most probing techniques observing the microstructure at atom scale, the project will use high-end experiments to localize hydrogen into the systems. Then, we will apply these insights to design steels with enhanced resistance against hydrogen embrittlement by precisely controlling the interstitial solutes.”
Hachet completed his PhD in Materials Science at the Université de La Rochelle, France, in 2018. Before joining MPI SusMat in 2022, he gained extensive experience in both industry and academia, focusing on hydrogen’s effects on aluminum alloys and the fatigue behavior of nickel single crystals.
The Humboldt Foundation supports academic cooperation between outstanding scientists from abroad and in Germany. It grants these research fellowships to researchers who have excellent qualifications and their own research profile. As the awardee is free to choose any host institution in Germany, the prize counts as a great honour for both the awardee and the host institution.
