Yves Leterrier
Fields of expertise
- Sustainable materials and processes
- Polymer composites, multilayer and hybrid materials
- Photopolymerization and sol-gel processes
- Mechanics of thin films on polymers
- Roll-to-roll process methods
Mission
Research: Functional multilayer and hybrid polymer composites- Integrative synthesis of organic-inorganic hybrids
- Photopolymerization and sol-gel processes
- Thin film multilayers and bioinspired surfaces
- Diffusion-barrier coatings
- Photo-hyphenated methods (rheology, calorimetry) and UV nanoimprint lithography
- Electro-fragmentation & electro-fatigue in-situ in microscopes for mechanical analysis of thin films
- Cost-effective roll-to-roll processes for flexible electronics and renewable energy applications
- Author and co-author of more than 300 technical articles including 145 peer-reviewed journal papers and 60 invited lectures
- Rheology (bachelor course)
- Life cycle engineering of polymers (master course)
- Recycling of materials (master course)
- Photopolymerization science and technology (doctoral course with Politecnico di Torino)
- Soft Microsystems Processing and Devices (doctoral course with EPFL colleagues)
Current work
Current projects- BioPack – Rethinking Food Packaging: Novel biobased packaging materials towards zero waste (project co-PI, Nestlé SA Fund)
- FLEXCAN – Flexible encapsulation of active implants (project co-PI, InnoSuisse Fund)
- 3DP4PEACE – Sustainable 3D Printing for Peace in Colombia (project co-PI, EPFL Tech4Dev Fund)
- DuPrintProtect (project co-PI, Switzerland Strategic Focus Area (SFA) on Advanced Manufacturing)
- XinoCaps – Xylylene-Inorganic High Barrier Encapsulation (project co-PI, InnoSuisse Fund)
- UltraCeal – Ultra high barriers based on cellulose nanofibrils (project PI, InnoSuisse Eureka Fund)
- Bioinspired self-cleaning surfaces for novel food packaging concepts (project PI, EPFL IFNC Fund)
- SUNLITE – Colored Solar Tiles Based on Composite Structures for Cost-Effective Building Integrated Photovoltaics (project PI, InnoSuisse Fund)
- Functionally graded polymer composites (project PI, SNF Fund)
- REFLEX – Ultra-flexible lithium film batteries (project PI, InnoSuisse Fund)
- Interfaces in fluorinated polymer composites (project co-PI, SNF Fund)
Biography
Yves Leterrier joined EPFL in 1993 and is a faculty member of the Materials Institute. He is a senior scientist and lecturer in the Laboratory for Processing of Advanced Composites (LPAC, previously Laboratory of Composite and Polymer Technology, LTC).Activities
- 2000-2005: Foundation and Chair of the Korea-Switzerland joint symposia on materials and micro-technologies
- 2004-2008: Board member of FLEXIDIS (the European flexible display consortium)
- 2004-2009: Group leader on lightweight materials for Solar Impulse
- Since 2008: Board member of the French Adhesion Society
- Since 2000: President of the EPFL Materials Science Library commission
- Since 2012: Editorial board member, Applied Surface Science
- Since 2014: Associate Editor, Frontiers in Materials
- Since 2021: Coordinator of the EPFL Minor on 'Engineering for Sustainability'
- 1987: MS in materials science and solid state physics (INPL, France)
- 1991: PhD in materials science (Ecole des Mines, INPL, France)
- 1992: Research Associate, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST, USA)
Publications
Infoscience publications
Selected publications
Teaching & PhD
Teaching
Materials Science and Engineering
PhD Students
Balkan Alper, Bonacina Michele,Past EPFL PhD Students
Geiser Valérie , González Lazo Marina Aymara , Nardi Tommaso , Rion Julien , Schreier Aigoul ,Courses
Science and technology of UV-induced polymerization
The course presents the main classes of photopolymers and key factors which control photopolymerization. It explains how to select the right formulation and optimize processes for a given application. Standard and novel characterization methods, new materials and new applications are also presented.